Walmart-at-the-Crossroads-FINAL-06.04.15

Another significant problem in the poultry industry is the existence of an abusive contract
system. Over 95 percent of broiler chickens in the United States are produced under
contract.
296
Contract-farming is a system in which “integrators,” such as Tyson and Perdue, hire
independent growers to raise chickens for them. The growers never own the birds, however, and the
agribusinesses have complete control over the most important aspects of how the animals are raised.
297
Growers borrow between $500,000 and $2 million to pay for the chicken “houses” that are
required by many of the integrators.
298
The chickens that the growers raise “reach slaughter and
processing weight in about six or seven weeks, but loans taken out to build henhouses can last for more
than a decade, making many chicken growers entirely dependent on a series of flock-to-flock contracts
to repay their debts.”
299
Large chicken companies often mislead growers about how much they are going to earn and
about the true costs of production.
300
In addition to the hidden costs of production, the wages growers
receive are based on a system called tournament pay. This method of payment means that “no
matter how hard the farmers work, half of them will be below average and make less money than”
what the company initially promised.
301
Even worse, the ranking of each farmer is mostly determined
by the birds that s/he receives, an aspect of the growing process over which the farmer has no
control.
302
If a farmer decides to speak out against these unfair practices, the company can decide to
cancel his contract.
303
Consolidation, vertical integration, and company-specific growing requirements
means that it can be challenging for a farmer to sell his chickens to a different company if his contract is
terminated.
304
Farmers often stay silent when integrators mistreat them because if they speak up, they
risk bankruptcy.
305
This consolidation of the market, the contract growing system, and the lack of supply
management policy have forced the majority of the poultry sector to adapt industrial methods of
raising animals.
306
The poultry industry has converted almost exclusively to the factory method of
mass-producing livestock in “warehouses” in order to lower production costs. The external costs of
converting to industrial factory production is an increase in poor animal welfare, environment
violations, and labor exploitation.
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