Industrial Eggs: Salmonella And The Usual Social Ills

F.D.A. Links Salmonella to Egg Farms and Chicken Feed

The DeCosters produce 2.3 million dozen eggs a week in Iowa. Over the years, many here have objected to the growing operations of Austin J. DeCoster. Neighbors sued the DeCosters’ farms for what they said were noxious gases, millions of gallons of uncovered manure and putrid animal carcasses left on roadways.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources declared Mr. DeCoster a “habitual violator,” making his the only operation ever to be deemed such in Iowa, for its handling of hog waste. And Mr. DeCoster paid more than $1.5 million as part of a settlement with 11 female workers, most of them Mexican, at his egg facilities over sexual harassment and assault charges, including rapes by supervisors.

DeCoster is just made for a revealing documentary, but even if he isn’t actually the shit heel he appears to be, industrial scale pig and egg farming is unsustainable, and the US Government is going to have to regulate farming to do away with these inherent dangers in the food system. Yes, food prices will rise, but we need to factor in the costs of hundreds of thousands of Americans sickened by bad food every year.