Instead they moved to the current system, persuading independent contracted farmers to take on this responsibility instead, and the system has reaped rich profits for those at the top. In the 1960s, poultry companies experimented with owning and operating chicken farms, but realised it was the least profitable, highest risk part of the supply chain. The companies own and operate all the means of production, including the feed mills, slaughterhouses, trucking lines and even the hatcheries that develop the best strains of chickens. Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms, Koch Foods and Perdue control about 60% of the US chicken market.
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Over the past half century poultry farming in the US has become increasingly consolidated among a handful of companies. The company, which produces a number of other agricultural products and services, generates more than $6bn a year in revenue.
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He is contracted exclusively to Perdue Farms, one of the largest poultry companies in the US. Like nearly 90% of US poultry producers Howell is not an independent farmer who can buy and sell his chickens to whoever he wants. I do the same thing every time and the payout per flock can vary by as much as $8,000. “It doesn’t matter what I do, I can’t get above water. He spoke to the Guardian about his situation. Instead, Howell, now 70, finds himself working long hours, deep in debt and earning less than $40,000 (£30,654) in 2019 – well below the average US wage. He and his wife hoped it would provide a decent income they could combine with their small pensions to fund a comfortable retirement.
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B ack in the 1990s, Rudy Howell, then in his mid-50s, took over his father-in-law’s poultry contract business in North Carolina.