Jack & Peter DeCoster Give Up Egg Business After 1,900 Sickened By Salmonella

[hatrack]

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A ruthless entrepreneur who built one of the nation's largest egg production operations from scratch even as he racked up environmental and labor violations is quitting the business after one scandal proved too much to overcome: a nationwide salmonella outbreak caused by his products.

Austin "Jack" DeCoster, 77, and his son, Peter, have given up control of egg operations in Iowa, Maine and Ohio, they said in a statement Monday. Their farms produced salmonella-tainted eggs that sickened an estimated 1,900 people and led to a recall of 550 million eggs. Later, federal inspectors uncovered filthy conditions at the farms, including dead rodents and towers of manure.

Steve Boomsma, chief operating officer for Centrum Valley Farms in Alden, Iowa, said in a telephone interview that his firm had signed a nine-year lease with an option to purchase six DeCoster operations in Iowa, including the Wright County Egg farms responsible for the outbreak.

A division of Minnesota-based Land O' Lakes announced earlier in November that it is taking over DeCoster's Maine egg farms. And Boomsma said a deal could be announced before November ends, involving Iowa investors' takeover of DeCoster's egg operations in Ohio.

EDIT

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/story/2011-11-21/Tainted-egg-CEO/51335840/1

[formercia]

1. Good riddance

I used to live near one of his farms. They were notorious 'Christians'. They lured people from Mexico with their Evangelism, then kept them as virtual slaves under horrendous working and living conditions.

[eShirl]

2. FINALLY!

Don't the barn door hit you on the way out. assholes!

[rfranklin]

3. they should be jailed but will probably leave with truckloads of money...

which they will use to pyramid their wealth through hedge funds.