Reuters — Mountaire Farms, a top U.S. chicken company, is pressuring its contract farmers to oppose a Biden administration proposal aimed at improving their conditions because the company says it would ultimately reduce farmer pay, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with farmer advocates.
The privately owned chicken company, said to be the nation’s fourth-largest with approximately 1,100 contract farmers, distributed letters to its farmers detailing why they should oppose the proposed rule and provided them with form letters to submit to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The rule, first proposed by the USDA in May as part of a broader effort to improve the conditions of contract farmers in the heavily consolidated U.S. meat industry, would require chicken companies to share more information about how contractor pay is calculated and provide details on the quality of inputs like feed and chicks that they provide to them.
