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Up one levelAnnual Meeting slated
Poultry Partners will hold its annual meeting June 15, 6 p.m. at the Siloam Springs Community Building. All growers are urged to attend and hear the latest update on the State of Oklahoma versus poultry companies lawsuit. Poultry Partners Attorney Michael Graves will make that update.
Poultry firms win suit over leukemia
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TIMES, written by Robert Smith; Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009. Jurors found in favor of poultry companies on trial in Washington County on Thursday. Poultry companies George's Farms, Tyson Foods and Simmons Foods were cleared of charges levied in a suit in which Michael "Blu" Green and his parents alleged exposure to litter from chickens given the arsenic-containing feed additive Roxarsone caused Green's leukemia in the 1990s. It was 9-3 in favor of the defendants. Civil trials do not require unanimous verdicts.
Appellate court panel denies litter injunction
BY ROBERT J. SMITH and published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Posted on Thursday, May 14, 2009 URL: A lower court's decision to let farmers keep using poultry litter as fertilizer in the Illinois River watershed was correct, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Wednesday.
Missouri firm offers $120,000 to get out of poultry litter suit
BY ROBERT J. SMITH Posted on Friday, May 15, 2009 URL: One of eight poultry companies sued over pollution in the Illinois River watershed wants the U.S. District Court in Tulsa to approve a settlement that would drop the firm from the lawsuit. Willow Brook Foods Inc., a Springfield, Mo., company purchased by Cargill Value Added Meats in March 2008, cut a deal with Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson to pay $120,000 as part of a consent decree.
Ozark Poultry Growers Symposium March 19th
Ozark Poultry Grower’s Symposium March 19, 2009 Pauline Whitaker Animal Science Center Fayetteville, AR Sponsored by U of A Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. Winrock International , SAAFA, and Poultry Partners
Growers feel Pilgrim's Pride pain
BY STACEY ROBERTS Posted on Sunday, March 15, 2009, Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Some Arkansas contract chicken farmers find themselves squeezed between the needs of a poultry company fighting for survival and the demands of personal creditors. Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December in an effort to reorganize its debts and emerge as a profitable company.
Agency: Poultry not likely E. coli source
The Oklahoma Department of Health found harmful E. coli strains in three of 17 groundwater wells near Locust Grove that contained the bacteria, but the contamination likely did not come from chickens, the agency reported Wednesday. The findings come a month after Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson said chicken farms near the town polluted a restaurant's well and caused an E. coli outbreak last summer.
CSI - Edmondson Editorial
By Rick Stubblefield The release of a report by state Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office regarding the Locust Grove E. coli outbreak in August 2008 is easily summarized by the first sentence: Edmondson blames chicken manure used as fertilizer near a restaurant for causing a disease outbreak … Only later does Edmondson qualify the initial statement, describing poultry litter as “a possible source” of the bacteria.
Official cites litter in death from cafe
BY ROBERT J. SMITH and published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette Feb. 15, 2009; Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson blames chicken manure used as fertilizer near a restaurant for causing a disease outbreak that led to the death of a man from Pryor, Okla.
Pilgrim's Pride closing El Dorado site
BY STACEY ROBERTS Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2009 and published in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette; Texas-based Pilgrim's Pride Corp. will close three of its remaining 32 chicken plants, including an El Dorado plant that has been hit by job cuts twice in the past year. The three plants, including facilities in Douglas, Ga., and Farmerville, La., employ about 3,000 people. That is about 7 percent of Pilgrim's Pride's remaining national work force. A total of 430 independent contract growers will be affected by the closings, the company said in a news release Friday.
Judge Removes Peterson Farms From Litter Case
FAYETTEVILLE A judge dismissed Peterson Farms from a lawsuit alleging chicken litter caused a Prairie Grove man's cancer. Smith ruled there's not sufficient evidence any of the four defendant companies acted with intent to cause harm, or with reckless disregard, so Michael "Blu" Green and his parents cannot seek punitive damages from Tyson Foods, Simmons and George's.