Egg farmer in current recall battled Maryland over facilities

[frontrange]

Source: Washington Post

The Iowa egg farmer at the center of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella tangled in the past with the state of Maryland, where he once ran two massive facilities and was charged with violating a quarantine by selling contaminated eggs.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082506896.html?hpid=topnews

---

DeCoster should be in jail. Why aren't law enforcement authorities shutting him down and criminally prosecuting him?

[Blue_Tires]

1. to answer your question, he probably had a nice, cozy relationship

with the pro-business state legislators in Annapolis...

[DBoon]

2. I bet this guy reads "Atlas Shrugged" like it is the bible

and thinks that he is some kind of ubermensch who doesn't have to follow the rules of "slave morality"

[Confusious]

3. My thoughts exactly when I read this

He probably thought "fuck 'em if they get sick. They bought from me, and they'll do it again, 'cause they'll nave no idea where it came from."

Either that, or he just thought the state was fucking with him. "no way my eggs are bad" "they're just after me because I'm successful"

[CanonRay]

4. He probably owns half the Iowa state legislature

plus a Congressman or two.

[mike r]

5. Actually people in Iowa despise DeCoster

and there have been attempts to shut DeCoster down in Iowa, even by the GOP governor. The Iowa Supreme Court labeled him a habitual violator, but didn't have the power to evict him back to Maine.

[crim son]

6. We don't want him back.

He has the same history here and I can't understand why he's still in business.

[mike r]

7. Because they're still arguing over who should inspect his farms

http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/896809

FDA's McGarry told reporters Thursday that the agency "does not have an inspectional history with this firm," citing jurisdictional issues. When asked who does have jurisdiction, McGarry pointed to the Agriculture Department. Yet USDA oversees voluntary grading inspections, but does not test for salmonella in shell eggs.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Iowa wanted him out because he repeatedly violated Iowa's environmental laws. But DeCoster has good lawyers and he always paid all the fines.

[crim son]

8. "Jurisdiction over eggs has been scrambled...." Heh. n/t

[hedgehog]

9. We need new terms for these people, because they sure ain't farmers!

And the places they run may be full of cows, pigs or chickens, but they sure as hell ain't farms!


How many people here have figured out that while this guy and his pals were raking in the bucks while ignoring all the rules, the real farmers were working two or more outside jobs trying to get enough money to keep their farms running? The farmers I know and their wives all work a day job, then come home to take care of the farm.

We can have good food, or cheap food, but we can't have good, cheap food. It's time to start paying our farmers a decent wage for their work. We can make sure that everyone gets fed properly if we quit wasting our money on arms.

[Iowa]

10. If our government wasn't so completely corrupted...

...we'd have forfeiture laws on the books to deal with habitual offenders like this. After "x" number of founded offenses, law enforcement would swoop in and this asshole would be a pauper. Instead, these sleazebags actually call the shots.

[Jennicut]

11. Look at this list of things he has done:

* In June 2000, he became Iowa's first Habitual Violator of environmental laws, and was fined $150,000.
* The DeCosters paid $1.5 million in fines to the EEOC in 2003 to resolve complaints of sexual harassment and rape by supervisors.
* DeCoster plead guilty to federal immigration violations and agreed to pay a record $2,125,000 civil fine to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August 2003.
* In June 2006, a raid found 36 illegal workers at a DeCoster egg plant in Clarion, Iowa.
* In December 2006, the Ohio Agriculture Dept. revoked the operating permits of Ohio Fresh Eggs, because the firm failed to disclose that DeCoster was involved with daily operations. (Source: "Egg Firm Misstated DeCoster Link", DesMoines Register, Dec. 3, 2006, p.4D.)
* In September 2007, a raid found 51 illegal immigrant workers at a DeCoster egg plant in Wright County, Iowa. (Source: Cedar Rapids Gazette, Sept. 14, 2007, p. 5B.) http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Austin_J._DeCoster

Wow. Nice, not following the regulations AND hiring illegals so he doesn't have to pay his workers a decent wage. What an asshole.

[wordpix]

13. wondering how many streams & rivers he's polluted with his lack of manure controls

Just guessing, chicken shit being a huge problem everywhere, esp. in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

[wordpix]

12. "The notion that eggs will ever be free of salmonella is ludicrous." Let me tell this lawyer:

You're an idiot. I raised free-range hens on a family farm for years and they were never sick; none of the eggs ever had salmonella and none of my egg customers ever got sick, either.

This egg farmer is a factory farmer and that means his birds are kept confined to cages tightly where they can't walk around. Right there, it's cruelty to animals, unsanitary and unsafe for human consumption.