August 2009 Articles

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Welcome Foster Farms

Just Rambling: July 11,2009 was the day that Union Parish, Farmerville, and all of North Louisiana had been waiting for - the official ribbon-cutting for the Farmerville Poultry Facility recently purchased by Foster Farms of Livingston, California. Hundreds of people were on hand for this celebration with the majority of them meeting at the Farmerville Recreation Center and then boarding buses to the Facility for the ribbon cutting. What a grand occasion it was but it was by invitation only. Fortunately I was one of those that received an invitation. I was thankful for that. Having worked for Louisiana Ag Credit for 30 years dealing primarily with the financing of poultry farms and having been a poultry grower myself for 30 years, I would have been deeply offended if I had not gotten an invitation to this event. On the bus ride to the Ribbon-cutting and as Governor Jindal and CEO Ron Foster were speaking, I scanned the crowd for familiar faces, meaning familiar grower faces. I saw very few, less than ten, in an audience of several hundred. There were political dignitaries, businessmen & women, news media, and Foster Farm employees but very few growers. Don’t get me wrong- it was a great day for all including the growers even if the majority of them were not invited to the event. My thoughts went back to the February 27, 2009 date when Pilgrim’s Pride announced the idling of the Farmerville, La. and El Dorado, Ar. plants with no intentions of selling either facility. For the next few weeks we saw growers from both Louisiana and Arkansas coming together to call upon their elected officials for help. A few business people, extension people and employees were in the loop but the vast majority of the leg work was done by the growers themselves. Our elected officials of Louisiana responded to our calls with Governor Bobby Jindal leading the way with assistance from Dr. Mike Strain, Commissioner of Agriculture & Forestry, Senator Mike Walsworth, and the entire North Louisiana delegation. This tremendous response by our elected officials was fueled primarily by growers. During governor Bobby Jindal’s March 20th announcement of Foster Farms purchasing the Farmerville Facility, he made reference to comments made by Robert Moore, a Jackson Parish poultry farmer. He stated that since becoming Governor he had memories of hurricanes among other things but one of the most vivid memories he had was of the individual (Robert Moore) during his first trip to Farmerville after the plant closing. Governor Jindal’s mindset during this meeting was on retraining and unemployment benefits until grower Robert Moore stood up to explain to the Governor that growers were not interested in handouts or retraining. They were interested in continuing to grow chickens to make a living for their families and to pay their mortgages. He went on to state that the majority of the growers had their homes and poultry facilities under mortgage and that retraining with unemployment benefits wouldn’t enable growers to pay their mortgages. Governor Jindal admitted, he wasn’t very familiar with the poultry business but from that point in time, he was on a mission to revive the poultry industry in North Louisiana. Revive he did! He encouraged Foster Farms to come to Louisiana to buy, convinced Pilgrim’s Pride to sell, and was able to get 50 million dollars of state money to close the deal. For this we thank Governor Jindal, his staff, and all the other elected officials that were instrumental in getting Foster Farms here. However, we will never forget the driving force behind the deal was the growers themselves. Even though we are independent contractors and not officially a part of Foster Farms or any other integrator in Louisiana or Arkansas, the Quality product being produced starts with the grower. Never forget, “It All Starts Here” down on the farm with independent growers/contractors, who deserve to be recognized for the contribution they make in the production of a quality food product to help feed our nation. Without these contract growers, the July 11th ribbon cutting & celebration would not have occurred.