MODERN-DAY SERFS - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 119

cause the remaining catchers could only remove birds from two barns in one day. Their three barns are
considered “a flock,” and growers are ranked on an average weight gain for their flock. The math for the
feed conversion is done based on the first day chicks are placed in a barn and the last day birds are picked
up—which, if the pickups occur on different days, works against the grower, since it appears that it costs
more to feed the birds. 17
Also problematic for the Ruddles is that they have very little say over when and if they get birds. The
integrators often promise a prospective grower a five-year contract, with guaranteed birds. Valerie says that
people should read the fine print, because it is the company that decides how many flocks a grower re-
ceives. Even when a grower has a contract, the company decides “flock to flock” when the grower will get
more chicks. Growers that do not “cooperate” with the company may not get another flock, even though
they have assumed the tremendous financial debt for the facilities.
The retribution they have experienced for being outspoken about company practices, including Valerie's
position as secretary of the advocacy group Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, has
caused further economic hardship. In May 2010, Russell was fired from his job as an electrician at the Pil-
grim's Pride processing plant, a job he had held since 1995. He was told that he took too much time off for
his “side business” of raising chickens to be processed at the plant. He had only taken his vacation time
and a few hours of unpaid leave over the course of the year, to be present when birds were removed from
the warehouses for slaughtering—a Pilgrim's Pride requirement. The fact that the company often delivered
and removed flocks over more than one day not only hurt the Ruddles financially, because of the way costs
are calculated, but it required Russell to take off more time.
In December 2010, Valerie was asked to testify at one of the hearings organized as part of the process
to revise the GIPSA regulations. On December 3, the day the press release about Ruddle's testimony was
posted, Jeff Bushong, assistant live production manager at Pilgrim's Pride, visited her at work to say that
the company would not be providing any more birds until contractual obligations had been met. He also
said to her that he understood she would be out of town the following Wednesday, December 8. This was
the day she was to testify at the hearing in Washington, D.C. 18
Ruddle laid out in her testimony how integrators have taken advantage of growers.
You talked about asymmetry. They have a lot of that in the poultry industry. It's called vertical integration. . . .
[T]hey supply everything to us. They supply our birds. They supply our feed. They supply their medications that
they need. Everything comes from them. However, we supply 100 percent of the labor. We supply 100 percent
of the utilities. We supply the mortgage for the buildings that these birds are grown in. . . . We work very hard.
The labor is not simple and it is very time consuming. 19
Valerie went on to explain that a grower must simply trust the integrator about the weight of the feed,
because it is not weighed on delivery. And the grower must trust the company on the weight of the flock at
the slaughter facility, because the grower is discouraged from being present to verify the weight. Growers
are paid a base pay, but the price per pound ends up varying depending on the average daily weight gain
of the flock. The integrator, who also determines when a flock is sent to slaughter, can manipulate these
numbers by picking up birds early or catching them in the multiple barns on different days. The Ruddles
lost a penny per pound on a flock that weighed 379,000 pounds—losing out on $3,790—because of ma-
nipulation by Pilgrim's Pride. 20
The Ruddles have also experienced problems related to ranking. Valerie says that this metric is based
on the feed conversion rate for each flock of birds—an unverifiable figure formulated by the integrator.
Growers do not know who they are being ranked against or whether the growing conditions or feed quality
may have differed significantly. 21