Industrial scale livestock farming is not doing too well anywhere. Profits all the way through the system are down and the stress of over-borrowing is showing.
That's all a straight forward business situation common to any industry from time to time.
But farmers cannot make consistent money out of sick animals and the unusual structure of the pig and poultry industry, pretty well everywhere, means that the man who does much of the borrowing, does not call the tune.
They feel trapped: they are trapped in modern farm slavery by contract. We feel for the farmers. They have not been wise, but they were sold a pup: all risk with the real money lining the pockets of drug dealers and banksters. Some even finds its way into political campaign donations in Britain!
The story now breaking is from the USA, but it could be pretty well anywhere.
The story was published in two parts - a farmer driven to desperation speaking out, and bringing the film crews and reporters in. Then before the ink was dry, what may well have been retribution.
Fortunately, the US media jumped and went into overdrive to protect the whistle-blower.
In Britain, dreadful Defra and its drug dealer pals protect the slave masters with the vetocracy providing the enforcers.
You can get the story here. It's a good time to value and encourage a free press.
...The disagreement highlights the fraught relationship between modern contract farmers and the nation’s biggest meat companies. Farmers like Watts borrow millions of dollars to build large factory farms, but they never actually own the birds they raise. Instead, they sign a contract ... which deliver the live birds and pay the farmer to raise them. The companies also deliver chicken feed and send veterinarians by the farm to check on the birds and administer drugs if needed. Farmers like Watts have little freedom in choosing how to raise their chickens, and they have no control over the kind of bird that is delivered to their farm. Chicken farmers live in perpetual fear that companies will cancel their contracts, so they rarely speak with reporters...
