Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
By TOM PHILPOTT In 2004, Elsa Murano stepped down from her post as chief of the US Department of Agriculture division that oversees food safety at the nation’s slaughterhouses. Two years later, she joined the board of directors of pork giant Hormel, a company that runs some of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses. Murano received $238,000 in compensation […]
Craig Watts is about as farmer as they come. He chews tobacco, he’s gruff, he wears overalls, and he loves Willie Nelson. He’s not what you think of when you think of whistleblowers like Deep Throat or Edward Snowden. But six months ago he embarked on a journey to expose what he calls hidden injustices […]
By LINDSAY ABRAMS The chicken farmer who took the brave and unusual step of speaking out against poultry giant Perdue Farms is filing for federal whistleblower protection for the retaliation he says he experienced for coming forward. Craig Watts, of North Carolina, had been raising chickens for Perdue, the country’s third-largest poultry producer, since 1992. […]
By MARYN MCKENNA Back in December I wrote about a chicken farmer who took the extraordinary step of inviting animal-welfare activists into his barns to document the conditions under which his contract compels him to raise his birds. The farmer, Craig Watts of North Carolina, has raised chicken for Perdue Farms for two decades and […]
(Washington, DC) – Today, the Food Integrity Campaign (FIC, a program of the Government Accountability Project) filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint on behalf of its client, Perdue contract farmer Craig Watts. Mr. Watts alleges that the poultry company initiated intimidation tactics against Watts after he publicized animal welfare concerns. This is an historic event, the […]
FIC Director Amanda Hitt speaks with Katy Keiffer on this episode of What Doesn’t Kill You about why Hormel’s participation in USDA’s high-speed hog inspection program is a “recipe for disaster.” Listen to the episode (46 minutes) here.
By TREY MEWES Meat inspectors are speaking out against a high-speed pork production program used by several Hormel Foods Corp. factories. The Government Accountability Project released four affidavits from working and recently retired meat inspectors on Monday, all of whom denounced a Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points project for increasing the contamination in meat […]
KAAL-TV, the ABC affiliate in Austin, Minnesota (where Hormel is headquartered) covered a television news story about USDA whistleblowers at Hormel pork plants raising concerns about high-speed hog inspection. The print version of the story is below. By DAN CONRADT A USDA pilot project is drawing criticism, and that criticism is being felt close to […]
This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Americans love pork. But they’d probably think twice about biting into that slice of bacon or Spam sandwich if they knew about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s high-speed slaughter program. Fortunately, a few brave USDA meat inspectors have come forward to let folks know what’s really going […]
by CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN Toenails, hair and fecal matter are finding their way into Americans’ pork under new, faster slaughterhouse regulations. Whistleblowers from inside the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have spoken out against a recent pilot program, saying they let harmful materials be passed on to consumers. They claim that fewer inspectors and higher […]