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| Chicken barns controlled by Tyson Foods in West Tennessee house more than 624,000 chickens each and produce massive quantities of waste. (Tennessee Outlook photo by John Partipilo) |
Tyson Foods' rapid expansion across the rural U.S. has been partially taxpayer-financed, with Department of Agriculture loans. Both the rapid expansion and the use of taxpayer dollars for corporate growth, seemingly without oversight, has some West Tennessee farmers taking stock: "A new lawsuit brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center, banded together to form 'Concerned Citizens of West Tennessee,' is now challenging the federal government’s role in providing tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-backed loans to Tyson contract growers," reports Anita Wadhwani of Tennessee Lookout. The suit claims USDA, “through the Farm Service Agency, is illegally subsidizing industrial chicken operations through a federal lending program intended to provide 'family farms' with startup and operational capital.”
The lawsuit claims "federal loan guarantees are illegal because the lending program is reserved for helping ‘family farms’ And because Tyson controls virtually all aspects of the industrial chicken growing operations, those facilities are not ‘family farms’ under applicable lending rules,” Wadhwani writes. “The lawsuit notes that other government loan programs have determined that poultry contractors do not qualify for loans because of their integration into corporate operations."
Wadhwani’s object example is a $425 million meat processing plant in Humboldt, Tenn., its third large-scale plant in the state, opened last year and subsidized by “$20 million in taxpayer incentives from the administration of Gov. Bill Lee."
In addition to taxpayer financing, local farmers are concerned about the plants’ pollution and lack of oversight. "The lawsuit also accuses the Farm Service Agency of failing to follow its own rules in conducting thorough environmental impact studies of farm operations seeking the loans — or in keeping local communities informed," Wadhwani reports. "Instead, the federal agency only conducts perfunctory environmental reviews, before issuing 'rubber-stamped approval.'"
James Lavel, a retired Navy commander who has advocated for greater poultry operation regulation, told Wadhwani that he has been frustrated by local and state elected leaders’ actions, and inactions: “I’ve gotten a hodgepodge of excuses from them. And then the FSA comes in here and uses our taxpayer money for this. If you just keep putting the people at risk you’re trying to feed, what’s the point? We need regulations. They exist to protect the people.”
The lawsuit claims "federal loan guarantees are illegal because the lending program is reserved for helping ‘family farms’ And because Tyson controls virtually all aspects of the industrial chicken growing operations, those facilities are not ‘family farms’ under applicable lending rules,” Wadhwani writes. “The lawsuit notes that other government loan programs have determined that poultry contractors do not qualify for loans because of their integration into corporate operations."
Wadhwani’s object example is a $425 million meat processing plant in Humboldt, Tenn., its third large-scale plant in the state, opened last year and subsidized by “$20 million in taxpayer incentives from the administration of Gov. Bill Lee."
In addition to taxpayer financing, local farmers are concerned about the plants’ pollution and lack of oversight. "The lawsuit also accuses the Farm Service Agency of failing to follow its own rules in conducting thorough environmental impact studies of farm operations seeking the loans — or in keeping local communities informed," Wadhwani reports. "Instead, the federal agency only conducts perfunctory environmental reviews, before issuing 'rubber-stamped approval.'"
James Lavel, a retired Navy commander who has advocated for greater poultry operation regulation, told Wadhwani that he has been frustrated by local and state elected leaders’ actions, and inactions: “I’ve gotten a hodgepodge of excuses from them. And then the FSA comes in here and uses our taxpayer money for this. If you just keep putting the people at risk you’re trying to feed, what’s the point? We need regulations. They exist to protect the people.”
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