Part 2 of Two
See Part 1: Looking Forward: What Kind of Future Could Project Sunny Buy?

If past is prologue, what can be said of a company that, on the one hand, gives generously of funding and efforts to causes and non-profits in its communities and, on the other hand, takes much from its communities?

Reading headlines from over the past 35 years leaves little doubt that both are true. An internet search for “House of Raeford donates” will produce an exhaustive gallery of images documenting the good deeds performed by this company.

Scratching a little below the surface, other headlines emerge with stories of a company whose record on violating environmental regulations and worker safety has been described as “abysmal.” This is not to single out House of Raeford. Similar histories exist among other major players in the poultry processing and slaughterhouse industry.

In the course of reading these stories, which span decades, certain patterns begin to emerge. Histories repeat. Issues that existed four decades ago persist to this day.

Below are some of the headlines from the past 35 years — stories that tend to pass like ships in the night until they personally affect us. Most of the of articles involve House of Raeford, whose stories are highlighted in gray.

1989

Inside the Slaughterhouse
From the 3-part series: “Ruling the Roost”
By Barbara Goldaftas. Southern Exposure. Summer 1989
Excerpt: “Perhaps the most serious threat at the processing plants, however, is the risk of disabling injury. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, poultry workers suffer higher rates of illness and injury — rates that are more than twice the average for all workers in the private sector. Poultry processing is ‘more debilitating than any industry I know,’ says Sarah Fields-Davis, director of the Center for Women’s Economic Alternatives, an advocacy group based in Ahoskie, North Carolina. ‘I have seen women without an arm or fingers, with half a hand.’”

”I feel what women feel”
An interview with Donna Bazemore,poultry worker turned organizer.
From the 3-part series: “Ruling the Roost.”
By Bob Hall. Southern Exposure. Summer 1989.
“….Once you go through the door, everything changes. Your whole attitude. When you come out, you’re like two separate people. It has to do with the stress and pressure they put you under.”

Chicken Empires
From the 3-part series: “Ruling the Roost.”
By Bob Hall. Southern Exposure. Summer 1989.
Excerpt: “With its gushing flow of profits, one wonders why the industry doesn’t have the “courage” — to use Don Tyson’s word — to slow down its processing lines, treat its workers with respect, give their contract growers a measure of security, and still produce a product people are happy to eat? Must Frank Perdue and the 47 other chicken kings treat the world as a competitive jungle forever? ‘Perdue showed everybody how to really market chickens,’ says Tex Walker, an organizer with UFCW during its unsuccessful campaign in Accomac. ‘Now somebody needs to show him how to treat people like human beings.’”

2000

River Park Planners Want Plant Relocated
By Bridget A. Sheldon. The State. December 29, 2000
Chicken processing facility occupies coveted site beside the Congaree River.

2006

Civil Action: Cally R. Forrest, Jrl, and Suzanne Forrest, Plaintiffs, vs. Columbia Farms, Inc., Columbia Farms Distribution, Inc., Columbia Farms of Georgia, Inc., And The House of Raeford Farms, Inc., Defendants.

2007

House of Horrors: Turkey Slaughterhouse Investigation Reveals Sickening Cruelty
Mercy for Animals. May 18, 2007.
Excerpt: A Mercy For Animals undercover investigation takes you behind the closed doors of one of the country’s largest poultry slaughterhouses — House of Raeford Farms, Inc. in Raeford, North Carolina. In January and February of 2007 an MFA investigator worked in the “live-hang” area of the plant (where live birds are snapped into shackles on the slaughter line), secretly filming egregious acts of animal cruelty with a hidden camera. 

Denny’s Suspends Buying Poultry
The State. May 23, 2007.
Denny’s, Inc. has suspended poultry purchases from house of Raeford Farms in North Carolina pending further investigation into allegations of mistreatment of animals before slaughter. The allegations had surfaced and a video shot and a house of Raeford facility by representatives of an animal welfare group, the restaurant operator said in a statement.

2008

Worker Abuse Documented Yet Again in the South’s Poultry Industry
By Sue Sturgis. Facing South. February 13, 2008.
The next time you pick up a House of Raeford product at the grocery store — Black Forest Turkey Ham, perhaps, or maybe some Chicken Tenders — you should stop and think about the human suffering that’s not listed among the ingredients. This week the Charlotte Observer is featuring an investigative series titled “The Cruelest Cuts,” examining the plight of workers at the poultry giant’s Carolina facilities. A team of reporters and editors spent almost two years analyzing documents and interviewing more than 200 poultry workers — most of them Latino, and many in this country illegally. The team found compelling evidence the North Carolina-based company failed to report serious injuries such as broken bones and carpal tunnel syndrome, plant officials often dismissed workers’ requests for medical care, and regulators failed to take action to protect the workers. 

Poultry Firm’s Safety Records Raise Questions About Workers’ Welfare
By Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander, and Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer. February 10, 2008.
Excerpt: “In an industry rife with danger, house of Raeford Farms depicts itself as a safe place to work. Company records suggest relatively few workers are injured each year as they kill, cut and package millions of turkeys and chickens. But a Charlotte Observer investigation shows the N.C. poultry giant with S.C. plants in West Columbia, Greenville and Hemingway has masked the extent of injuries behind its factory walls.”

Poultry Production Has High Human Cost
By Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander, and Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer. February 12, 2008.
Excerpt: “Five current and former House of Raeford supervisors and human resources administrators, including two who were involved in hiring, said some of the companies managers know they employ undocumented workers. ‘If immigration came and looked at our files, they take half the plant,’ said Caitlin Davis, a former Greenville plant human-resources employee. “

Painful realities
By Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander, and Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer. February 13, 2008.
Excerpt: “When injured workers require treatment beyond first aid, employers also must record those injuries on federal logs; too many such injuries can draw scrutiny from workplace safety inspectors. In this environment, medical gatekeepers often face a choice: provide workers with the care they need or save the company money.”

Injured Sent Back to Work
By Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander, and Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer. February 14, 2008.
Excerpt: “House of Raeford boasts that its Greenville plant has gone more than 7 million hours without a “lost time accident,”meaning no worker has been injured badly enough to miss an entire shift. But according to the company’s own safety logs, Vicente was among at least eight workers at the plant who suffered amputated fingers or broken bones— all during the time the plant claimed to have millions of safe working hours dating back to 2002. Managers have kept the streak alive by requiring injured workers to return to the plant — in some cases hours after medical procedures.“

Congress Takes on the Poultry Industry: Hearings called after newspaper put spotlight on worker safety.
By Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander, Franco Ordonez and Peter St. Onge. The Charlotte Observer. February 17, 2008.
Excerpt: “In a six-part series that began last Sunday, the Observer reported that House of Raeford, which has seven processing plants in the Carolinas, had masked the extent of injuries behind its plant walls. Employees say the company, which has plants in West Columbia, Greenville and Hemmingway, has ignored, intimidated, or fired workers who were hurt on the job.”

5 Supervisors Arrested
The State/McClatchy Newspapers. June 19, 2008.
Excerpt: Federal agents on Wednesday arrested a fifth supervisor at a house of Raeford Farms poultry plant in Greenville as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged immigration violations. On Tuesday, immigration officials arrested four other supervisors after finding what appeared to be false information on employment records kept at the company’s Greenville chicken processing plant, according to Kevin McDonald, first assistant US attorney for South Carolina. 

Poultry plant manager arrested.
The State. July 11, 2008
Excerpt: “A manager at a Greenville poultry factory under federal investigation was arrested Wednesday and charged with telling employees to use falsified immigration documents, according to court filings.”

Five More Workers Face Charges
Franco Ordonez, Kerry Hall, The Charlotte Observer. August 16, 2008. Excerpt: “In a February series on workplace safety in the poultry industry, the Charlotte Observer reported that some house of Raeford managers knowingly employed undocumented workers, according to five current and former supervisors and human resource administrators. Former supervisors have said the plant prefers undocumented workers because they are less likely to question work conditions for fear of losing their jobs or being deported.” 

Three more poultry workers arraigned
The State. Compiled from reports by The Greenville News, and The Charlotte Observer. August 30, 2008
Excerpt: “Three more house of Raeford Farms workers were arranged this week on charges of using fake IDs to work for the company’sGreenville plant, which continues to be at the center of an illegal immigration investigation. The men pleaded not guilty, and detention orders were placed on them because they were in the country illegally. “

Will next raid be at Columbia Farms?
Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer. September 6, 2008
Excerpt: “This summer’s arrests of 11 House of Raeford workers in Greenville shocked its S.C. work force. Dozens of workers have since left their jobs. The company is hiring fewer, if any, Latinos and has turned to state prisons to fill its production lines in West Columbia and Greenville.”

Feds Hold 300, Probe Hiring
Ames Alexander, Franco Ordonez, Franco. The Charlotte Observer. October 8, 2008
Excerpt: “Federal authorities conducted an immigration raid at Greenville’s Columbia Farms plant Tuesday, detaining more than 300 workers and searching for evidence of illegal hiring practices. As shifts at the chicken processing plant were changing at about 9 a.m., about 100 agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security raided the facility. When agents arrived, workers began running down hallways crying and screaming, said Herbert Rooker, a janitor who wore a blue band on his wrist, indicating agents had determined he was in the country legally. Rocker said he had to duck into a bathroum to avond a stampede of people.

Gallery: Immigration Raid at Poultry Plant.
Agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security executed a search warrant at the House of Raeford’s Columbia Farms chicken processing plant in Greenville, S.C., Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. Federal agents detained more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants in the raid at the plant that has been under investigation for months.(AP Photo/Greenville News, George Gardner)

Poultry Workers Torn Apart by Arrests
The State/Associated Press. October 9, 2008
Excerpt: “A day after the raid, families waited to bear from loved ones at detention centers. Meanwhile, businesses and streets were vacant because those not rounded up stayed home, afraid agents would return.”

Greenville Area Residents Aid Families of Suspected Illegals.
Post and Courier/Associated Press. October 12, 2008.
Excerpt: “The Greenville News reported Sunday that the Alliance for Collaboration with the Hispanic Community and local residents have met to identify lawyers, counselors, educators and interpreters to help the families. They also are trying to raise money and find people to care for the children of the jailed workers.”

Illegal workers set for deportation.
Post and Courier. November 19, 2008. 
Excerpt: “Ten former workers at a Greenville poultry plant who were in the U.S. illegally have pleaded guilty in federal court. Prosecutors said three of the men pleaded guilty Wednesday to false use of a Social Security number to get jobs at the House of Raeford’s Columbia Farms plant.”

Poultry plant fined
The State. November 21, 2008
“North Carolina regulators have cited a chicken processing company for 49 serious safety code violations, many involving hazardous chemicals. The Charlotte Observer reported the $178,000 fine levied against House of Raeford Farms is significant for the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.”

2009

South Carolina poultry plant manager faces immigration charge
Post and Courier/Associated Press. April 15, 2009.
Excerpt: “Prosecutors say Barry Cronic began hiring illegal immigrants at Columbia Farms in Greenville in 2000, and kept hiring them until a raid last October. The raid found more than 300 people working at the plant who were in the county illegally.”

Poultry Plant Official Pleads Not Guilty
The State. May 15, 2009.
Excerpt: “The personnel manager of a Greenville poultry plant has not guilty to knowingly harboring illegal aliens.”

Feds Indict Columbia Farms
The State/Associated Press. July 17, 2009.
Excerpt: “The company that runs a South Carolina poultry plant knew it man managers were hiring illegal immigrants at a facility rated in October, federal prosecutor said, and an indictment release Thursday.”

Poultry Plant Manager Enters Plea
The State/Associated Press. July 31, 2009.
“Columbia Farms Greenville plant chief pleads, not guilty in immigration case. “

10 Workers Sue Columbia Farms Plant.
The Greenville News. August 1, 2009.
Excerpt: “Ten former employees have sued the Columbia Farms chicken processing plant in Greenville, alleging the company refused to pay overtime that they worked and, in one case, fired a worker after accusing her of faking a workplace injury.”

OSHA Seeks to Get Better Handle on Injuries
By Kerry Hall Singe and Ames Alexander. The Charlotte Observer. October 5, 2009.
Excerpt: “An Observer investigation found that North Carolina-based House of Raeford Farms failed to record some workplace injuries.
The poultry company’s 800-worker plant in West Columbia reported no musculoskeletal disorders over four years. Experts say that’s in-conceivable. MSDs, including carpal tunnel syndrome, are the most common work-related injuries afflicting poultry workers. The company’s Greenville plant has boasted of a five-year safety streak with no lost-time injuries. But the plant kept that streak alive by bringing injured employees back to the factory hours after surgery. House of Raeford says it follows the law and strives to protect workers.”

Poultry Giant to Pay Fine.
By James Alexander and Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer. November 4, 2009.
Excerpt: Columbia Farms will pay a $1.5 million fine and will be required to change its hiring practices under an agreement that will allow it to avoid a criminal conviction on federal immigration charges. The deal will also allow two indicted managers at the poultry company’s Greenville plant to avoid criminal prosecution, provided they enter a supervised program for a year. The agreement, finalized just hours before the start of the scheduled criminal trial in federal court in Greenville on Tuesday, will give N.C.-based parent company House of Raeford an opportunity to keep its record clean and hold on to valuable government contracts.

2012

North Carolina Poultry Processing Plant Convicted for Knowing Violations of Clean Water Act.
US-DOJ Office of Public Affairs Press Release. August 20, 2012. 
Excerpt:“Publicly owned wastewater treatment plants must be protected from companies that cut corners by discharging wastewater illegally,” said Maureen O’Mara, Special Agent in Charge of of EPA Region 4, which covers the southeast United States including North Carolina.  “The defendants in this case deliberately discharged turkey parts, blood and grease into the wastewater plant for over 16 months, bypassing treatment.  Today’s conviction sends the message that the American public will not tolerate companies putting profit ahead of compliance.”
See also: EPA Summary of Criminal Prosecutions

Poultry processor, House of Raeford, to pay fine for child labor violations at Teachey, North Carolina plant following US Department of Labor investigation.
Department of Labor press release. October 16, 2012.
Excerpt: “The U.S. Department of Labor has assessed a total of $12,400 in civil money penalties against poultry processor House of Raeford Farms Inc. following an investigation by the department’s Wage and Hour Division that found minors performing hazardous duties prohibited by the Fair Labor Standards Act’s child labor provisions. “Employers who hire young workers must comply with all federal and state regulations intended to keep our youth safe on the job,” said Richard Blaylock, director of the division’s Raleigh District Office. “This situation is particularly disappointing because the company previously was cited for the same type of violation. It is critical for employers to learn about and comply with the child labor provisions of America’s labor laws.”

Big U.S. poultry processor hit with fines over youth labor
By Ames Alexander and Franco Ordonez. The Charlotte Observer/McClathey News.October 17, 2012
Excerpt: “This is not the first time House of Raeford, one of the largest poultry producers in the country. has been caught employing underage workers. During a 2008 immigration raid of the company’s Greenville plant, federal officials found six juveniles, including a 15-year-old, working on the chicken line. One of those underage workers, Lucero Gayton, said in 2008 that she started working the night shift four months after turning 15. While most of her former classmates were playing sports and attending dances, Lucero said she was working 10-hour shifts, wielding a sharp knife, cutting muscles from thousands of freshly-killed chickens.”

2014

Man trapped, injured Tuesday night at chicken processing plant. .
By Anne-Kathryn Flanagan. The State. June 4, 2014.
A man was taken to the hospital after being trapped in a piece of machinery at the chicken processing plant for almost two hours, according to West Columbia Fire Chief Wyatt Coleman.
Injured House of Raeford Worker Recovering After Surgery
WATTPoultry. June 14, 2014
An employee at the House ofRaeford Farms chicken processing plant in West Columbia, South Carolina, wasinjured June 3 in a work-related accident. The 43-year old man was operatingfactory machinery and suffered severe injuries to his right leg, the company stated.

2017

ProPublica: Sold for Parts
The New Yorker: Exploitation and Abuse at the Chicken Plant
By Michael Grabell. Story co-published by ProPublica and The New Yorker. May 1, 2017.
Excerpt: Case Farms built its business by recruiting immigrant workers from Guatemala, who endure conditions few Americans would put up with.
[Note: While House of Raeford is mentioned on a graph in this story, this article is about a different chicken plant, Case Farms].

Pressure mounts on chicken factory to clean up or move
By Al Dozier. Post and Courier. July 16, 2017
Excerpt: The city of West Columbia is losing patience with House of Raeford Farms, a long-standing chicken processing plant on Sunset Boulevard.

Chicken Plant Doesn’t Fit with Riverfront Renaissance.
By Tim Flach. The State. August 27, 2017.
West Columbia’s riverfront has undergone a renaissance, with joggers and cyclists almost daily enjoying the riverwalk and two upscale neighborhoods opening in the last decade. But city leaders and nearby residents worry that continued development will be stymied by an increasingly unpopular neighbor – a 60-year-old chicken processing plant that produces 281 million pounds of meat a year. Residents complain mainly about frequent bad odors and chicken feathers.

Stench near W. Columbia’s popular Riverwalk may improve as city targets plant
By Tim Flach. The State. October 18, 2017. 
The City Council late Monday gave initial approval to a set of restrictions on “offensive” odors that disturb residents, with final adoption expected by mid-November. Complaints about stench from the 60-year-old plant on Sunset Boulevard are increasing as new neighborhoods and businesses develop nearby.Councilman Tem Miles called the proposal a message to the House of Raeford to end problems at the plant. “This is telling them to clean up their act, that the smells are no longer acceptable,” he said.

Why West Columbia chicken plant is getting a reprieve on tougher stench rules
By Tim Flach. The State. November 10, 2017.
West Columbia officials are giving a chicken processing plant more time to stop odors before they crack down on the stench. “We’re pushing it off for a while to see if they can come up with a solution for the problem,” Mayor Bobby Horton said of proposed limits on odors. City Council members gave initial approval Oct. 16 to a set of restrictions on “offensive” odors that disturb residents. They were set to give final approval next Tuesday but that is on hold for a few months, Horton said.

Who Would Pay $27,000 to Work in a Chicken Plant?
By Michael Grabbel. ProPublica. December 28, 2017
Chicken plants have recruited thousands of foreign workers in recent years through a little-known program to fill jobs they say Americans won’t do.

Wilde said immigration agents are questioning why white-collar Koreans would want to pay tens of thousands of dollars to cut chicken. “They are sacrificing themselves for the futures of their children,” she said. “That is no different than any other immigrants in American history.”

Based in Rose Hill, North Carolina — home of the world’s largest frying pan — House of Raeford ranks among Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon as one of the biggest sponsors of green cards. The chicken processor, which employs 4,300 people at seven plants, has applied for 1,900 foreign workers in the last three years, according to Labor Department data. The company also ranks among the most dangerous poultry processors in the country, according to a ProPublica analysis of safety violations, with many workers suffering crippling hand injuries.

2018

With chicken plant odor unders scrutiny, city lodges new way for public to complain.
WIS – TV. May 11, 2018.

Top broiler companies targeted in new lawsuit
WATTPoultry. July 2, 2018.
The largest broiler companies in the United States have again been targeted in a class-action lawsuit, alleging that the companies conspired to manipulate chicken prices.

Kenneth N. Young, Plaintiff, v. Columbia Farms, Inc., a division of House of Raeford Farms, Inc., Defendant.
CaseText: C/A No. 6:17-cv-01340-DCC  09-05-2018 
https://casetext.com/case/young-v-columbia-farms-inc
Plaintiff, an African-American, was employed from February 13, 2013 to October 6, 2016. Id. at 3. Plaintiff alleges that his supervisors regularly greeted him in the mornings with phrases that included, “How ya doing, my Niggas?” Plaintiff filed a complaint with the plant manager, and, while the supervisor stopped using the phrase, tension remained. On or about September 30, 2016, Plaintiff was threatened by another employee wielding a knife, and Plaintiff defended himself to avoid being stabbed. Defendant suspended Plaintiff for three days and then immediately terminated his employment upon his return. He was 61 years old at the time of his termination.

2019

Worker Dies in Accident at House of Raeford Plant
October 30, 2019.
WATTPoultry. A contracted worker who was cleaning equipment at the House of Raeford poultry plant in Teachey, North Carolina, was involved in a fatal accident at the plant on October 25.

2020

Meat plant workers say they were fired after protesting risks.
By David Travis Bland. The State. May 7, 2020
About a dozen workers at a chicken processing plant in West Columbia were fired Wednesday after protesting for better pay and working conditions amid the coronavirus, according to some of those who said they were fired. Workers at the House of Raeford chicken plant refused to work under what they consider hazardous conditions without pay to compensate for the increased dangers of the coronavirus, the protesters told The State as they congregated on the sidewalk across Sunset Boulevard from the plant.

Union Investigating Workers’ Complaints at West Columba Chicken Plant
By David Travis Bland. The State. May 9, 2020
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is investigating complaints and a protest by workers at a chicken processing plant in West Columbia, according to a spokesperson for the union. On Thursday, a protest by a dozen or more workers asking for better pay and working conditions broke out on the sidewalk across from the House of Raeford chicken processing plant, sometimes called Columbia Farms, on Sunset Boulevard. The UFCW’s meat packing division is investigating the origins of that protest and whether the House of Raeford violated the union’s contract or federal labor law, spokesperson Valerie Barnhart said.

Union Files Grievance Against West Columbia Chicken Plant After Workers Fired
By David Travis Bland. The State. May 21, 2020.
The union for workers at a West Columbia chicken processing plant hit the company with an official allegation that the company broke its contract when about a dozen workers were fired after asking for better pay and better working conditions. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1996 filed the grievance against House of Raeford, which operates the West Columbia poultry plant sometimes called Columbia farms, after a May 6 protest by about a dozen workers. The workers wanted increased pay and better safety measures amid the increased risk of working during the coronavirus outbreak

Lawyers: Firing protesting workers at West Columbia chicken plant likely illegal
By David Travis Bland. The State. May 27, 2020.
Excerpt: “Supervisors at a West Columbia poultry processing facility may have violated federal law when they fired about a dozen employees who raised concerns about the facility’s safety and sought better pay amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to labor lawyers. On May 6, Naesha “Shay” Shelton and June Miller gathered with about a dozen other workers at the House of Raeford chicken processing plant in West Columbia to ask supervisors about getting hazard pay and better working conditions. More than ever, the job that involves cutting raw chicken by hand while standing next to co-workers seemed more dangerous because of the virus, workers said. Hearing news reports about the coronavirus swarming meatpacking workers across the country, Shelton, Miller and their coworkers felt their request for hazard pay and improved safety conditions were reasonable.”

Workers at SC Meat Plants Infected with COVID 19. Many Cases are in the Midlands
By Sammy Fretwell. The State. July 3, 2020.
Excerpt: “According to the agency’s statistics, about 58 percent of the 125 positive cases have occurred at Amick Farms and House of Raeford plants, mostly in the Columbia and Greenville areas. A total of 72 workers at Amick and Raeford facilities have been diagnosed with COVID 19, DHEC says.”

Investigation shows property, massive pile of dead birds in Sampson County site belong to House of Raeford.
WRAL News, Rose Hill, NC. February 9, 2022.
Heather Overton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the dead birds and the site where the birds were temporarily dumped belonged to House of Raeford, a chicken processing company known for its bulk sales.

2022

2023

House of Raeford in NC taking part in USDA’s Modified Line Speed Waiver Program Participation to determine the impact of increased line speeds on worker safety. March 2023.

Latest settlement in poultry price fixing suit brings recovery to $284 million.
By Rachael Oatman. Meat+ Poultry. October 10, 2023.
A class of direct purchasers agreed to a $75 million settlement with two poultry processors involved in a consolidated antitrust lawsuit for allegedly conspiring to fix prices of US broiler chicken.House of Raeford Farms Inc. agreed to pay $27.5 million, and Koch Foods Inc. agreed to pay $47.5 million. With the settlement, the total recovery to date is over $284 million.

2024

House of Raeford reaches settlement and Price fixing case.
By Rachael Oatman. Meat + Poultry. January 5, 2024.
House of Raeford Farms agreed to pay $460,000 in a settlement of a chicken price-fixing lawsuit with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The attorney began his lawsuit against the house of Raeford and 18 other chicken producers in 2021. He alleged that the companies, which account for 95% of the broiler market, conspired to manipulate prices by restraining production and exchanging competitively sensitive information. 

Violation Tracker, a database on corporate misconduct. House of Raeford entries from 2000 to the present.

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Part One of Two

Project Sunny was not on last night’s City Council agenda, however, a number of speakers came to the podium during the non-agenda portion of the meeting to give statements on the project. As the Aiken community learned only two weeks ago, Project Sunny is the code name for House of Raeford — the chicken slaughterhouse and processing center that is looking to locate at the Exit 22 gateway to the City on US Highway 1 North.

The speakers in last night’s meeting raised a number of important concerns:

• concerns about the capacity of the aquifer to support this industry;
• concerns over the ability of infrastructure to handle both the water supply and the waste generated;
• concerns over the City’s decision to site a chicken processing plant, rather than sorely needed retail, grocery stores and basic services, for existing residents on the northside;
• concerns over the City giving priority to the profit of a private enterprise over the needs of existing residents;
• concerns over the people who would be employed at this facility;
• concerns over the wisdom of placing a chicken processing plant at the main gateway to Aiken — an idea one speaker described as “out of touch” with the vision that City Council has been projecting for Aiken’s future.

Local resident Winona Specht, a retired SRS scientist with a background in environmental toxicology, pointed out that House of Raeford has an “abysmal record when it comes to violating environmental regulations and violating worker safety issues” and has been fined over $1.5 million for violations going back many years. She recounted several specifics from the past 4 years, alone, including two serious environmental violations and two serious workplace safety violations, along with price-fixing and anti-competitive practices. 

A recurring theme among last night’s speakers was the lack of information provided by the City to citizens on a project that local leadership has been working on for months, if not longer. This same message has been echoing for the past two weeks in local social media threads. What do we know about Project Sunny, House of Raeford, and the chicken processing and slaughterhouse industry that our leaders have been working to bring to Aiken?

Some Basics

Chicken processing plants and slaughterhouses are, by nature, water-intensive, waste-producing, pollution-generating industries. They are also among the most dangerous workplaces in America. For this reason, the industry tends to site these facilities in areas where labor is exploitable, regulations weak, and water cheap. They find fertile ground in the South. 

The realities of water depletion go largely unimagined in the southeastern US. We’ve yet to see the repercussions of unfettered water consumption that are being realized in the midwestern and the western US, where water depletion is starkly viewed in the disappearing rivers, lakes, ponds and well-water. A recent New York Times story, “America is Using Up its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow,” reported that, in some areas:

“So much water is being pumped up that it is causing roads to buckle, foundations to crack and fissures to open in the earth. And around the country, rivers that relied on groundwater have become streams or trickles or memories.”

Working from numbers provided by Aiken City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh, Project Sunny will use about 34 million gallons of water per month, equal to about 15% of our surface water capacity. As if to reward such consumption, the City is incentivizing this company by offering to sell the water at a 50% discount. Similar discounts are being offered for wastewater discharge in a system already under stress to keep up with demand. As was recently pointed out in the Aiken Chronicles, Another Fifty-Percent Off Sale: 

“In both cases, the more water used, and the more industrial wastewater produced, the lower the prices. No other City water and sewer customer even comes close to using this much water, or discharging that much wastewater. The Project Sunny facility, or any other major water user, could consume as much water in one year as the capacity of the City’s spring-fed Mason Branch reservoir. It also has the potential to put a further strain on the County’s Horse Creek Wastewater Plant, which the County is working to upgrade to meet a projected future capacity that seems to keep increasing.”

The question is — given a choice — why would leadership in a city and in a state that is still fortunate enough to have adequate drinking water supplies give the keys to our water to such a water-intensive industry, and at BOGO prices? What are they thinking? 

Jobs, we’ve been told — 900 of them, with a starting pay of $18 per hour; just what the northside needs, we’ve been told.

There is also the matter of dollars brought to Aiken — a $183 million investment by House of Raeford and the $65k per month water bills to be paid by Project Sunny. The seduction from all these dollars requires we engage denial on the cost. The seduction depends on our ability to ignore the lessons being learned all over the US and the rest of the world: when the water’s gone, there is no amount of money going to refill those creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, wells and aquifers.

About Those Jobs

According to the City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh, the starting pay is $18 per hour. Elsewhere, we’ve been told that $18 is the average pay, which could mean the starting pay may be only two-thirds of that amount. We don’t know. Accurate information is lacking.

Regarding the type of work in these facilities, according to OSHA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these are some of the most dangerous jobs in the country. According to the Executive Summary in an OSHA file dated October 1, 2023, a publication whose stated purpose was to “to reduce injuries, illnesses and fatalities related to workers’ exposures in poultry processing facilities”:

Click above text to enlarge.

The Overview on Poultry Processing at the OSHA website further elaborates:

“There are many serious safety and health hazards in the poultry processing industry. These hazards include exposure to high noise levels, dangerous equipment, slippery floors, musculoskeletal disorders, and hazardous chemicals (including ammonia that is used as a refrigerant). Musculoskeletal disorders are of particular concern and continue to be common among workers in the poultry processing industry. Employees can also be exposed to biological hazards associated with handling live birds or exposures to poultry feces and dusts which can increase their risk for many diseases.”

The work for the clean-up crew is no less hazardous, according to the earlier-mentioned October 2023 OSHA publication:

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According to this same OSHA publication, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that “the extent of the problem may be far greater than the elevated risk reported by employers and seen in the BLS data due to under-reporting.”

This reality is borne out through the accounts of workers over the past 50 years of poultry processing history and at least 35 years of House of Raeford history. While the rates of worker injuries and illness have fallen somewhat over the years, it is difficult to ascertain how much of this is due to improved processes; how much is due to the ripple effects from the defunding of OSHA and other oversight and regulatory agencies; how much is due to under-reporting by industry; and how much is due to under-reporting by employees, themselves, who understand that the fastest way to getting fired is to get sick or injured. As the headlines and the stories tell, poultry industry workers know better than to take time off for gastrointestinal infections, lost fingernails, amputations and broken bones.

This history and the records of this industry will be explored in some depth in Part Two of this story, as told in 35 years of House of Raeford headlines.

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NEXT: Looking Back at 35 Years of Headlines.