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THREAD-How a Top Chicken Company Cut Off Black Farmers, One by One propublica.org/article/how-a-… *h/t to @iarnsdorf for the jaw-dropping reporting*
"After years of working as a sheriff’s deputy and a car dealership manager, John Ingrum used his savings to buy a farm some 50 miles east of Jackson, Mississippi. He planned to raise horses on the land and leave the property to his son.
"The farm, named Lovin’ Acres, came with a few chicken houses, which didn’t really interest Ingrum. But then a man showed up from Koch Foods [not related to the brothers], the country’s fifth-largest poultry processor and one of the main chicken companies in Mississippi.
"Koch Foods would deliver flocks and feed — all Ingrum would have to do is house the chicks for a few weeks while they grew big enough to slaughter. The company representative wowed Ingrum with projections for the stream of income he could earn, Ingrum recalled in an interview.
"What Ingrum didn’t know was that those financial projections overlooked many realities of modern farming in the U.S., where much of the country’s agricultural output is controlled by a handful of giant companies.
"The numbers didn’t reflect the debt he might have to incur to configure his chicken houses to the company’s specifications. Nor did they reflect the risk that the chicks could show up sick or dead, or that the company could simply stop delivering flocks.
"After Ingrum signed his contract to grow chickens for Koch Foods, in 2002, different company representatives kept coming with lists of expensive modifications they wanted Ingrum to make, according to an affidavit he provided to the USDA investigator.
"After Ingrum met all the specifications, the next representative went back on what the previous one said and wanted things done a different way, Ingrum said in the affidavit."
"After the complaints by the two black farmers, an investigator for the USDA, which is responsible for regulating the industry, looked into Koch Foods’ dealings with those farmers and found “evidence of unjust discrimination,” according to a 700-page case file seen by ProPublica.
"The investigator concluded that Koch Foods violated a law governing meat companies’ business practices. The Trump administration has cut back on enforcing this law, with the USDA now conducting fewer investigations and imposing fewer fines. Koch Foods hasn’t faced any penalty."
After Ingrum attended a public hearing to complain... “I never got another chicken. They put me slap out of business.”
"As Ingrum ran out of money, the power company cut his electricity, but he refused to leave for three months. His former colleagues at the sheriff’s office had to come remove him.
"For the next five years, he stayed with relatives until he scraped together enough money from working at a car dealership to get back on his feet. 'Twenty years, everything I worked for, I lost it in one summer,' Ingrum said. 'It just ruined me.'
"Around the same time, two other black farmers in the area also stopped growing chickens for Koch Foods. Out of 173 chicken farmers under contract with Koch Foods in Mississippi, there was only one African American left. His name was Carlton Sanders.
"Ingrum said he warned Sanders: 'They’re coming after you, Carlton. You next.'
"Sanders’ farm was in a nearby town called Lena. He had been in the business since 1992. Back then, he worked with a local family business called BC Rogers, which he said always treated him professionally.
"He used the chicken manure to fertilize his vegetable garden, and he took pride in his trees growing figs, pears and apricots. 'I just had everything set,' Sanders said.When Koch Foods bought BC Rogers in 2001, everything changed.
"Sanders’ performance was above average, according to the ranking system that the company used to pay farmers. But he felt singled out for disadvantages. 'I’ve never been treated like that by anybody,' Sanders, 63, said. 'It was just like I was in hell with them.'
"Sanders found himself in a downward spiral after the dispute with Koch Foods. He had a stroke and a heart attack. The bank foreclosed on his farm and he filed for bankruptcy. His wife left him. He’s living on food stamps plus whatever he gets from hunting and fishing.
"'I’ve been about as dead as somebody can go without being dead. I’m trying to hold my head up, that’s all I can do.'
"On Sundays, Sanders passes by his old farm on his way to church. The farm is just sitting there, still up for sale, lying fallow. Sometimes, he takes a long way around to avoid seeing it."
