The Biden administration made historic progress to protect producers from meat company abuse. Amid the first meat industry attempt to roll that back, no one knows where Trump’s USDA will stand.
In a late-night email on January 25, President Trump unlawfully fired 17 independent Inspector Generals (IG) from agencies including the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and State Department, with an additional firing of the US Agency for International Development Office of Inspector General (OIG) weeks later. The event was dubbed by the media as the “Midnight Purge.”
Today, in a landmark victory for due process, the Eastern District of North Carolina denied Perdue Farms Inc.’s motions for a preliminary injunction attempting to halt on-going proceedings in a system designed to level the playing field between individual whistleblowers and the better-resourced corporations they challenge.
"Perdue can't block the U.S. Department of Labor's administrative proceeding for whistleblower complaints, a North Carolina federal judge has concluded, saying the chicken producer failed to show why the proceedings should be stopped urgently."
US District Judge Terrence Boyle issued an order Tuesday denying Perdue’s motion for an injunction against the US Department of Labor and poultry farmer Craig Watts. Boyle’s order also applies to a similar case involving Rudy Howell, a second Robeson County poultry farmer.
Large poultry companies, such as Perdue Farms, pay growers based on a “tournament system.” Farmers who fatten their chickens most efficiently are paid the best. Those who struggle to fatten their birds have their pay docked. But a federal rule finalized this month will provide some financial stability and transparency to thousands of farmers who raise broiler chickens across the state, said Melanie Canales, a project manager for RAFI-USA, a North Carolina-based nonprofit that advocates for farmers.
Today, Government Accountability Project, representing whistleblower Craig Watts, joined the Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in a hearing concerning Perdue Farms Inc.’s federal lawsuit to block further proceedings in DOL’s Office of Administration Law Judges (DOL OALJ).
Yesterday, Government Accountability Project filed a response to the federal lawsuit brought by Perdue Farms, Inc. challenging the constitutionality of administrative proceedings in corporate whistleblowing cases.
This week on the show a conversation with Sherri Dugger and Craig Watts with Socially Responsible Agriculture Project. We talk about the work they’re doing to support people living in rural communities dealing with the consequences of factory farming operations located in their neighborhoods.
Several poultry sector lawsuits are underway in the US, including several involving Tyson Foods, the world’s largest producer of chicken products.
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