It appears, at least in the farming industry, our fears of “evil corporations” have come true.
Perdue Farms, one of the largest producers of chickens in America and a company that has long boasted that much of its meat is certified as “free-range” and “humanely raised,” is now searching for a place to point fingers.
Ever since North Carolina farmer Craig Watts outed the company by inviting cameras to capture the brutal conditions “free-range” chickens face on Perdue farms, the company has been facing backlash from the public and losing thousands of customers.
Its response? Blame the whistleblower. Despite the fact that Watts is a 22-year veteran in the chicken farming industry and is bound by a contract requiring him to raise his chickens the way Perdue wants them raised, the company still finds it appropriate to push the blame back to him. So much for corporate responsibility.
In the eyes of the Editorial Board, this situation presents us with several concerning issues. Firstly, of course, is the obvious issue of animal cruelty. Consumers hate it, farmers try to avoid it when they can and the government is supposed to regulate it. Yet, somewhere in this process, something broke. We all know factory farms exist and the cruelty that comes along with them, but when revelations of cruelty come out of farms certified as humane, someone needs to be held accountable.
The second and larger issue at hand is the manipulative and extortionist tactics used by large farming corporations in the contract-farming system. Companies like Perdue force these farmers to follow strict rules, threaten their livelihoods if they don’t sign and then pit the farmers against each other for profits.
Then, when those farmers try to speak out against the mistreatment of the animals they raise or, shockingly enough, the mistreatment of the farmers themselves, Perdue Farms and its colleagues skirt any responsibility. These actions remind the Editorial Board less of corporate America and more of the Jersey Mob.
Perhaps the saddest part of the entire ordeal is how much the media went along with Perdue’s blame game, overlooking the disgusting and medieval tactics of the farming giant.
The Editorial Board, however, is not buying it. Not only are we calling for better oversight by the USDA to truly ensure that meat with the “free-range” certification lives up to the name, but we are also calling for an end to the mob-style shakedown tactics of the farming industry.
No longer should farmers be forced to sign one-sided contracts simply because these huge businesses will run them out of the market otherwise.
No longer should farming corporations be an exception to basic labor laws simply because they can extort its workers into being “independent contractors.” And no longer should the American people sit by and watch as one of the largest industries in our country is overtaken by a few businesses that care about their bottom line above the quality of their product, the welfare of its ?workers or the morality of its methods.
