[ProtectOurFreedom]

[continues...]

On April 9 at 6:30 a.m., Mergen said, a crew of about 15 workers showed up with carbon dioxide to euthanize the chickens and semitrailers to haul away the carcasses. “They come in with carts, put them all in carts, wheel them up to the end, put a hose in that cart and gas them, then dump them over the edge into a conveyor and convey them up into semis and the semis haul them out,” Mergen said. “I was in there for quite a while and the longer I was there the more disgusted and disappointed I was knowing that I’m not going to see anything put back in my checkbook again, so after a while I just simply left.” By nightfall the chickens were gone, taken to a rendering plant to be turned into dog food, and so was the Mergens’ income from a business they’ve been running for 22 years.

Barb Mergen, Kerry’s wife "...it’s just that someone can come in so quickly and when they euthanized the birds, that was our paycheck euthanized.”

The couple could start an egg business that sells to grocery stores, but they don’t have the equipment to grade eggs for the retail market and there are other financial obstacles to building their own flock and feeding it.

The swiftness of the decision to wipe out the flock is still shocking to the Mergens nearly two weeks later. A representative of Daybreak didn’t return a call for comment. “They didn’t confide in us, they didn’t ask us, they didn’t care about what effect this would have on us,” Barb said. “Our contract says at least a seven-day written notice. That’s not much, but it’s more than this. We just feel like we’re a nobody at the end.”

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I'm disappointed that President Trump hasn't been able to squeeze the FDA to relax food regulations so that farmers who were selling to the commercial & restaurant markets could quickly get their product into the retail supply chain. Meanwhile our markets here in the San Francisco Bay Area are restricting egg purchases to one dozen per shopper per visit! Pre-COVID, something like HALF of all food was sold in restaurants and take-out; now most of that has shifted to supermarkets. I believe the supply chain could be adapted quickly if the government would get out of the way and eliminate regulations designed for a stable, COVID-free economy.

---

Greta says "I WARNED you about CO2! See how dangerous it is? It killed these poor, defenseless birds and it will kill US!!"

[frank ballenger]

Not that I want them to die but the chickens could be shown a big picture of Greta scowling. They’d drop on the spot.

[Secret Agent Man]

Honestly waste of good chickens.

Too lazy to advertise and try to encourage people to buy eggs as well. More are at home baking and cooking.

And you cant just replace millions of birds across the country in a heartbeat when demand goes up.

[Darksheare]

Reminds me of the mindless waste of communism.

[frank ballenger]

One of the news source propaganda sites (can’t remember maybe MSN?) had a link to worldwide famines will kill millions due to the economic destruction caused by the virus reaction.

Killing the chickens could be like the famous film clips of farmers pouring milk down the drain to keep prices up in the 1930s. Farmers never recovered from the publicity. Only now viral videos.

If the choice is a consumer paying 40 cents for a gallon of gas or twelve cents for a dozen eggs, who is going to stay in business to provide those for the people to buy? No one. Texas oil producers and processors won’t work for free. Neither can farmers.

[Steely Tom]

There was a story here on FR some years ago about an owner of sled dogs up in northern Canada (Yellowknife, I think) that shot one hundred dogs because market conditions changed. I don’t remember the precise backstory, but I think he ran sled expeditions into the wilderness. There was a recession, and demand dried up. The dogs needed to be fed meat; this cost him a lot of money.

[SkyDancer]

Imagine some poor guy/husband coming home to that - late? That is of course she did live with one. Or maybe ....

[vladimir998]

Personally, I hate this sort of thing. I understand the economics of it, but the waste of it bothers me.

I always thought in a situation like this we should be storing away “excess” food for a time when we would not have food.

[ConservativeMind]

I’m disappointed that President Trump hasn’t been able to squeeze the FDA to relax food regulations so that farmers who were selling to the commercial & restaurant markets could quickly get their product into the retail supply chain.

Yeah, likewise, I’m still mad Trump hasn’t found a way to make city employees wash my car, get live hogs to a viable, working moon base, and found what was “there” before the Big Bang occurred.

Let’s go protest Trump together!

[eyeamok]

you aint seen nothing yet, the full effect of this catastrophic destruction and intentionally created depression at the hands of our public masters won’t be realized for a few months yet. Hold on Tight!!!

[Responsibility2nd]

A week ago, you could not find eggs in the store to buy.

And if there were eggs, you were limited to 2 dozen. At $6.99 a dozen.

And now this?

We truly live an a (bleeped) up world.

[Gene Eric]

Nearly forgot about that petulant brat.

[Leep]

Today Chickens ..tomorrow the rest of us.

[PGR88]

I'm disappointed that President Trump hasn't been able to squeeze the FDA to relax food regulations so that farmers who were selling to the commercial & restaurant markets could quickly get their product into the retail supply chain.

There are many variations of such production contracts, but from what happened I would guess - the eggs and chickens legally belonged to Cargill, not to the farmer. He’ll probably be paid for both according to the contract, but may be stuck with the depreciation and loan costs of the barn, equipment, etc...

[JediJones]

[dubyagee]

This is insanity. Our world is upside down backwards. To kill chickens rather than take the time to convert the egg prep to retail. I can’t even.

[RetiredArmy]

Dimocrat states just love to kill things. Chickens, unborn babies . . .

[Kickass Conservative]

Didn’t we just read that there a Co2 Shortage affecting Beer and Soda Producers? Now we know why...

[jimmygrace]

Too many Jim Gaffigans on this post... You can’t pull things out of your a$$ just because you want them. There are a lot of logistics BESIDES government regulation that force farmers to dump products. First of all, cows make milk and chickens make eggs whether you need them or not, and they are very perishable. Second of all, a factory can’t be retooled to produce different packaging and sorting overnight. This takes weeks in the best of times, and probably longer when people have to maintain distancing. And lastly, there is no point in being in business to lose money. It hurts our nature to see livestock killed, but it is no different than oil or semiconductors slowing production in economic terms.

[setter]

Why not just destroy the eggs they produce every day?

[blackberry1]

Sonny Purdue isn’t too concerned for some strange reason?