Farmers to get help for Pilgrim's Pride losses

Louisiana's agricutlure commissioner says chicken farmers who lost contracts and money after Pilgrim's Pride Corp.

[canceled grower]

Good job!!! About time someone gets help to the farmers. Hope it does not come with so many strings attached that it doesn't help anyone! burned once twice shy!! Anyone know if it applys to ALL EX Farmers of PPC or just the ones in La.? Thinking if it is federal shouldn't all be able to apply?

[Bobbie]

You know it is'nt going to apply to everybody.Its only to the Black.I sure as heck did'nt see black's with farm's. If they grew anything at all, it was'nt anything but maybe a few tomatoes,s or a little turnip greens. They needed to grow something other than babbies.This is just another rip off on the white people.I wish people had the guts to stand up for our right's.The illegal's has more rights then the people that was born here.

[old chicken farmer]

Bobbie wrote:

You know it is'nt going to apply to everybody.Its only to the Black.I sure as heck did'nt see black's with farm's. If they grew anything at all, it was'nt anything but maybe a few tomatoes,s or a little turnip greens. They needed to grow something other than babbies.This is just another rip off on the white people.I wish people had the guts to stand up for our right's.The illegal's has more rights then the people that was born here.

Way, way, way off base!!! I don't understand how anyone could interject race into this battle. There are black poultry farmers that are being subjected to the same abusive tactics as all the whites, hispanics, etc.. by these corporate thugs. I'm still scratching my head wondering how in the world anyone would think this is a race issue. It is a corporate greed issue brought on by the selfish, self-absorbed attitude of this billion dollar mega-corporation.

[CONSERVATIVE]

More bailouts just what we need. Whatever happened to being in business and taking responsibility for the decision you make? If you make a decision and you make money, great. If you make a decision and it cost you, well then it costs you. It's called BEING IN BUSINESS! DEAL WITH IT!

[old chicken farmer]

I agree whole-heartedly with "Conservative" in "whatever happened to being in business and taking responsibility for the decisions you make". And that has been the problem from the very start of this financial disaster. Not only did Pilgrim's Pride not take responsibility for their decisions that left workers, farmers, and entire communities with financial hardship, Pilgrim's Pride also received bailout money for declaring bankruptcy. The help being provided to the farmers is really insignificant considering all the factors. To start with, most poultry farmers will only be able to pay the interest on the loans that have been sitting on the verge of foreclosure for over a year. And Lord knows, the farmers don't need to be foreclosed on. Why? Most poultry farmers have loans that are backed 80% to 90% by the federal government. The lending institutions will not be saddled with all the losses, the fereral government will. And to top it all, when farms are auctioned they just bring pennies on the dollar. Well just guess who is buying those farms on the auction block. You got it, Pilgrim's Pride. So let see, Pilgrim's Pride makes bad business decisions that put workers, farmers and entire communities in dire financial strait, declares bankruptcy and receives bailout money, makes a huge sum of money by the sale of controlling shares to overseas company, and now buying those same farms they pushed into bankruptcy at foreclosure. All at the expense of hard working taxpayers. Pilgrim's Pride has refused to accept responsibility for their actions. It's business all right, and the poultry farmers are having to deal with it everyday. Next time you sit down to eat just remember that food was supplied by long hours of hard work.

[bankruptfarmer]

CONSERVATIVE wrote:

More bailouts just what we need. Whatever happened to being in business and taking responsibility for the decision you make? If you make a decision and you make money, great. If you make a decision and it cost you, well then it costs you. It's called BEING IN BUSINESS! DEAL WITH IT!

What so many people fail to understand, is that, the only business mistake that the poultry farmers have made, is to believe the lies that pilgrims pride spewed out of their mouths', as they spun their tales trying to get farmers to either get into the business, or to retrofit and upgrade their farms to meet new requirements for raising chickens. Why is it that people still continue to blame the farmers, who did nothing to cause their businesses to be put in jeopardy, it is, and was all at the hands of the greedy corporate management of Pilgrims Pride. I know that the politicians are making a big fanfare, of the possible help that may be coming to the poultry farmers, such help that has been going to row crop farmers, and big corporate farmers for many years, without any cries of "bailout" from anyone. The government subsides these corporate giants, with hundred of millions of dollars every year, and most people never say a word about it. This is an election year, the only reason that Blanche Lincoln, and anyone else involved is making a show of trying to help the small poultry farmers, is to garner public sentiment, and try and buy votes. They care nothing about us farmers, if they had, they would have found a way to have helped the farmers outside of an election year. The government has made it possible for Pilgrims Pride to be able operate above the law, and why is that, just follow the money, look at who is getting all the donations from the major integrators, and Pilgrims Pride is a meat supplier for the United States Armed Forces. They have government ties, on top of government ties. They can and have ruined our businesses, not us. Before you start pointing fingers at any small farmer who is out there begging for help the save his/her farm, try and find out who really caused that farmers plight. Right now the multi-billion dollar system of integrators have their lobbists descending on Capitol Hill, trying to squash any and all effort by the small farmers, to be able to have any kind of protection from the abusive, agressive, destructive tactics of these mega corporations. They are spinning lie on top of lie to the Dept of Justice, and the Packers and Stockyards Association, in trying to maintain their strangle hold on all of us small farmers. If they are successful, it will spell out a new era of despair for all small farmers across this nation. If they get their way, say goodbye to small farmers in this nation. They are hungry, they are greedy, and they want our farms as their own. Don't believe me? Just look at Farmersville La. They are starving those poor farmers to death. 4 batches of chickens a year is a precription for bankruptsy. Pilgrims Pride is buying up the farms that are being auctioned off, and they are the ones who caused the farms to fail in the first place. My God America, Wake Up!!!!!!

[bankruptfarmer]

canceled grower wrote:

Good job!!! About time someone gets help to the farmers. Hope it does not come with so many strings attached that it doesn't help anyone! burned once twice shy!! Anyone know if it applys to ALL EX Farmers of PPC or just the ones in La.? Thinking if it is federal shouldn't all be able to apply?

The rules, and who will get help is changing almost daily. I am totally torn about this money, it should be Pilgrims Pride paying the farmers money for the horrible injustices that they have heaped on the poultry farmers heads. They should also be paying money to the communities which they have harmed from their greed, but instead, they are going to those commuinites asking for tax breaks, and incintives for them to be willing to come back into these communities. Their arrogance, and greed knows no ends, they refuse to admit to their trespasses, and instead they continue to kick each of these communities in the teeth.
If the government money does not get to the poultry farmers before the elections, then the money most likely will just evaporate. I believe that it is nothing but an attempt to buy votes. Time will tell.

[old chicken farmer]

Let put this disaster relief grant in perspective. The U.S. Dept. of Ag. set aside $60 million for ALL poultry growers that had their contracts cancelled. And by "set aside" I mean this money was already in place for disaster relief grants in other areas of agriculture it was just shifted in order to help the poultry farmers. I don't know exactly how many poultry farmers were cancelled but in the south Arkansas and northern Louisiana area there were approximately 420. Do the math, by the time this money is divided up it won't be near enough to recoup their losses. Now take a look at the present salary of the CEO of Pilgrim's Pride, Don Jackson. Don's annual salary alone is $150 million and that doesn't include his stock options and other perks. But I agree that it shouldn't be the government that has to step in to relieve the poultry growers from the awful mess made by Pilgrim's Pride bad management decisions. Even poor Don and old Bo Pilgrim could have given up 40 or 50 million each to help the farmers and they would not have even missed the money. But as usual, they are driven by greed and it was this greed that ravaged the farmers.

[Linda]

I’m not really sure how this is going to affect my business online through ppc. I market chickens online and ppc has been an effective way to advertise. I also use a tool which I got from this site http://ppc-conversion-tracking.com to help track my ppc conversions.