The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business

by Christopher Leonard

  My great friend Whitney Lane was kind enough to donate her time to edit early versions of this book. It wouldn’t have been the same without her sharp eye and hard work, and I don’t know what I would have done without her help. Deanna Benjamin helped me edit the first chapter and my book proposal, and I benefitted greatly from her wonderful feedback and encouragement. Casey Smith was an incredible whiz with using government data, and I am grateful for her help and creative thinking to build and analyze data sets for this book.

  I have been very lucky to spend most of my career in a series of newspaper and wire-service jobs, where I worked with a group of extraordinary editors who showed me the way. At the Columbia Daily Tribune, I thank the incredible duo of Scott Swafford and John Schneller; I am glad you caught me when I was still young enough to learn. Managing editor Jim Robertson broke protocol in 1999 and let my first story on Tyson Foods go past the jump, for which I am still grateful (but still too intimidated to say anything about it). At the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, I was lucky to work with John Magsam, Serenah McKay, Roger Hedges, David Bailey, and Griffin Smith.

  I am so lucky to have fallen in with the team I did at the Associated Press. I learned more than I can say from the outstanding examples of Jim Salter, Chris Clark, Randy Picht, Paul Stevens, and Kia Breaux. Jim Salter was not just a great boss but a wonderful role model.

  I am eternally indebted to the wise guidance of the Reverend Lowell Grisham in Arkansas and the Reverend Andrew Archie in Saint Louis. Neither man knew the specifics of the project I was working on, but both were generous enough to give me guidance as I navigated the thorny business of investigative journalism. Thank you.

  At the University of Missouri, I was lucky to have Mary Kay Blakely as a tireless defender, mentor, and guide—thanks so much for all the help over the years. Steve Weinberg always had time to give advice. Thanks to everyone at Mizzou for showing me what journalism is. Thanks, Leigh Lockhart, for my first job out of college.

  To the Ponca gang: Thanks for making this a fun business to be in; I look forward to many more years of it. To the Blue Planet Posse: Thanks for helping me figure out who I was going to be when I grew up. To the Andreses, the Riches, the Higdons, the Diekempers, the Lanes, the Wolfs, the Dobsons, and the Berzons: Saturday nights just aren’t the same without having you all over for dinner. To Mary Ann: You believed in this first.

  John and Joan Miller are the most supportive parents-in-law that a guy could ever dream of having. It must have been dispiriting for them to learn that their daughter was going to marry a writer, but they have never been anything except my greatest champions. Their support is more than I deserve.

  I am lucky to have grown up in Kansas City, surrounded by people who are good in the deepest sense of the word. Uncle Ron Spradley is the best godfather that there could be; thanks for being a wonderful role model and just an all-around great friend. Thanks to Aunt Blythe and Uncle Dave Launder, and to David, Betsy, Andrew, and Victoria. What’s life without Launders? Thanks to Hotchy Kiene, Hunter Wolbach, Andrew Moore, Stuart Wolferman, Sarah Eckles, Matthew Wood, and too many great, lifelong friends to name here. Thanks to John Eckles for being a great friend to the family, and a free lawyer when I needed one. Thanks to Julie Zimmer for coaching me on the important things since before I can remember. Thanks to Larry Ward and everyone at Shughart, Thompson & Kilrory.

  Victoria Leonard, Mom, where would I be without you? You have shown me my whole life what it means to have a moral compass, to be compassionate, and to think of other people first. You have shaped how I see the world, and I don’t trust anyone’s advice like I trust yours. Thanks for always picking up the phone when I need you, which is more often than I can count.

  David, thanks for teaching me how cool reading and writing can be. Bythe, thanks for the guidance and undying support over the years. And thanks to both of you for teaching me how to hold my own during dinner-table debates.

  Of course, nothing in my life is possible without my wife, Josie Leonard. She is my sounding board and my foundation. She had the courage to pay for trips to Arkansas with the family credit card before anyone believed in this project. I owe it all to you, Josie.

  And to the rug rats: I love you.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  © SETH RUBIN

  Christopher Leonard was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a fellow with The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute in Washington, D.C. He is the former national agribusiness reporter for The Associated Press and a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his family.

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  NOTES

  A NOTE ON SOURCES

  Some sources agreed to speak to me for this book only on the condition that the interviews were on “background,” meaning that I could use the information from the interviews but not attribute it to those sources. There were two classes of sources to whom I granted this privilege: Tyson Foods employees (both current and former) and officials inside the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Justice. I think granting these sources anonymity was worth the trade-off of getting their candid observations of what transpired. When information was obtained under such ground rules, it is cited below as “Background interviews by author.”

  Also, some of the information in this book comes from knowledge I derived after spending more than ten years writing about U.S. corporate agribusiness. Some background facts, such as the advent of the U.S. ethanol industry, for example, come from my personal reporting over the years. These end notes do not list every article I wrote to substantiate that reporting.

  STATEMENT FROM TYSON FOODS:

  In final preparation for this book, I submitted two memos to Tyson Foods with a total of 63 detailed questions for the company to respond to. The questions outlined key allegations laid forth in the book, and the memos also provided an overview of key points in the narrative. The company was given months to respond to the reporting in the book. Eventually, Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson replied with a statement from the company. The company refused to answer the majority of the questions I posed.

  Here is the statement from Tyson Foods, in whole:

  Chris -

  It appears some of the primary sources for your book are disgruntled farmers and former employees who have told you about a handful of conversations or incidents that allegedly happened years ago. We have not initiated a detailed investigation into each of their claims, but we can tell you that most of them make no sense and simply lack credibility.

  We encourage you to dig deeper into the motives of these sources and press them to provide proof of their claims before incorporating them into your book. We also suggest you compare their claims to the stories of farmers and livestock producers who have enjoyed a positive working relationship with our company over the years.

  Tyson Foods has been working on a contractual basis with farmers since the late 1940s. During this 70 year period, we’ve worked successfully with tens of thousands of farmers and livestock producers. We want and need each of them to succeed. We depend upon them to supply livestock and raise our chickens so we can efficiently operate our plants. On the poultry side of our business, there are contract farmers who have successfully raised chickens for us for decades. In addition, we receive inquiries, almost weekly, from people that have interest in growing chickens for us.

  With these comments in mind, we’ve chosen to provide specific responses to some of the questions we can answer without start
ing a time-consuming investigation into dated, uncorroborated claims from disgruntled sources.”

  Where Tyson Foods addressed questions with information that was relevant, that information was incorporated into the text where appropriate.

  PROLOGUE: THE HIDDEN KING

  Nobody ever visits the stranded little community of Waldron, Arkansas: Notes from reporting in Waldron, Arkansas, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011.

  This illusory appearance cloaks Tyson’s existence: Notes from reporting in Waldron, Springdale, Arkansas, 2004–2011.

  The Tyson brand name wouldn’t necessarily stand out: Tyson Foods brands, company website: http://www.tyson.com/Products/Our-Products.aspx.

  Just a handful of companies produce nearly all the meat consumed in the United States: 2011 P&SP Annual Report, Packers and Stockyards Program, U.S. Department of Agriculture Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (March 2012), 31; William Heffernan and Mary Hendrickson, “Concentration of Agricultural Markets,” Department of Rural Sociology, University of Missouri, 2007.

  While Tyson’s operations are remote, the company’s business practices affect virtually everyone: Thomson Reuters-NPR Health Poll, Meat Consumption, March 2012.

  The first barrier to change is the fact that everything about Tyson Foods seems hidden: Notes from reporting, Springdale, Arkansas.

  At the core of Tyson’s strategy is an economic principle called vertical integration: James Blair, Joe Fred Starr, Don Tyson, Buddy Wray, interviews by author, 2010 and 2011; background interviews by author.

  Tyson first pioneered this model in the poultry business: Don Tyson, interviews by author, 2008, 200;. James Blair, interviews by author; Stephen F. Strausberg, From Hills and Hollers: Rise of the Poultry Industry in Arkansas (Fayetteville: Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, 1995); Marvin Schwartz, Tyson: From Farm to Market (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1991).

  From the 1960s through the 1990s, this industrial meat machine provided tremendous benefit to American consumers: James M. MacDonald and William D. McBride, “The Transformation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture; Scale, Efficiency, and Risks,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Information Bulletin Number 43 (January 2009); data on meat prices provided by Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, University of Missouri.

  Between 1955 and 1982, the amount of time it took to raise a full-grown chicken fell: Facts on chickens getting bigger derived from USDA report on transformation of livestock industry, and chicken breeding reports; Tomislav Vukina, “Vertical Integration and Contracting in the U.S. Poultry Sector. Journal of Food Distribution Research (July 2011), 33.

  After realizing the huge boost of savings that came from raising animals in factories, the growth curve started to flatten in the 1990s: Data on meat prices provided by Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, University of Missouri.

  In 2008, food prices jumped 6.4 percent: USDA report on food inflation found at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook.aspx.

  Not only does Tyson have control over how meat is priced, it also sets the rules for how meat is produced: Christopher Leonard, “Why Beef Is Becoming More Like Chicken: Cheap, Uniform and Bland,” Slate Magazine, February 14, 2013; Andrew Martin, “U.S. Withdraws Approval for Tyson’s Antibiotic-Free Label,” New York Times, November 20, 2007.

  The power is etched into the fretful face of men like Edwin: Edwin, interviews by author, 2004, 2011.

  Tyson’s power could be felt several miles down winding country roads from Edwin’s farm: Notes from reporting in Waldron and rural Missouri.

  In 2010 alone Tyson Foods sold $28.43 billion worth of meat and cleared $780 million in pure profit: Tyson Foods Annual Report for fiscal year 2010, SEC Form 10-K.

  On Saturday night, Waldron’s Main Street is quiet to the point of abandonment: Notes from reporting in Waldron, 2010.

  The average per capita income in Waldron and surrounding Scott County has stagnated in Tyson’s shadow: Per capita income data by county, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

  During that time, Tyson’s annual income rose 245 percent: Tyson Foods annual reports.

  But the economic malaise of rural America caught the attention of a young presidential candidate: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, interviewed by author, 2010, 2011; Dave Murphy, interview by author, 2011; background interviews by author, 2011.

  CHAPTER 1: HOW JERRY YANDELL LOST THE FARM

  Kanita Yandell was waiting for the men to come: Kanita and Jerry Yandell, interviews by author, 2004, 2010, 2011; Christopher Leonard, “Poultry Chicken Deaths Baffle Growers, Tyson Foods,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 28, 2004.

  About every eight weeks, a Tyson truck delivered birds to the Yandell farm: Jerry and Kanita Yandell, interviews by author; notes from reporting at Yandell farm, 2004.

  Around Christmas, Kanita and Jerry realized it didn’t matter: Jerry and Kanita Yandell, interviews by author.

  The struggles on Jerry Yandell’s farm could be observed on blinking computer screens inside the offices of Tyson Foods: Donnie Smith, Donnie King, interviews by author 2009; background interviews by author.

  The Tyson plant is a self-contained rural economy: Notes from reporting in Waldron.

  The reason for this is simple, even if it has been kept secret: James Blair, interview by author, 2010.

  Jerry Yandell knew how to work: Yandells, interviews by author.

  The chicken business in Waldron picked up in the mid-1980s: Don Tyson, interview by author, 2008; interviews in Waldron, Arkansas, with Tyson Foods chicken farmers and residents, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011.

  Jerry and Kanita signed contracts with Tyson: Yandells, interviews by author.

  The Yandells received their first flock of diseased chickens in the winter of 2003: Yandells, interviews by author.

  By the time the Tyson trucks arrived at Jerry Yandell’s farm to pick up the first flock of sick chickens, just about half of the birds were still alive: Yandells, interviews by author.

  One of Jerry Yandell’s field technicians over the years: Tommy Brown, interviews by author, 2010, 2011.

  By December of 2003, Jerry and Kanita Yandell were sinking: Yandells, interviews by author.

  Perry Edwards arrived for work before dawn: Perry Edwards, interviews by author. “Perry Edwards” is a pseudonym used to protect a source who wanted to remain confidential. Please see Author’s Note.

  Tyson Foods insists that such accusations are the stuff of “urban myth”: Statement from Tyson Foods, May 2013; Perry Edwards, interviews by author; “Plaintiffs present admissions of a Tyson ‘insider,’ ” McCurtain Daily Gazette, March 17, 2010; Cynthia Johnson, interviews by author, 2011.

  After New Year’s Day of 2004, Jerry Yandell sat in the office: Yandells, interviews by author

  Shortly after signing the papers, Kanita took out an advertisement: Personal Ad, “Auction, Personal Property,” Waldron News, March 2004.

  The Saturday auction was busy: Yandells, interviews by author.

  Jerry Yandell wasn’t the only farmer to receive batches of sick birds: Doug Elmore, Edwin, several anonymous Tyson Foods chicken farmers, interviews by author, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011.

  Even years later, many farmers affected by the problem: Christopher Leonard, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 28, 2004.

  Eventually, Jerry and Kanita drove up to the federal courthouse: Yandells, interviews by author, date.

  The company found a new crop of farmers: Christopher Leonard, “State Becomes Fertile Ground for Laotian Immigrants Eager to Own Poultry Farms in Arkansas,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 30, 2004.

  CHAPTER 2: THE EDEN CRASH

  In 1930, a twenty-five-year-old man named John Tyson was exiled: Don Tyson, interview by author, 2009.

  The ruination of a family farm was more than just a business failure: Harold F. Breimyer, Individual Freedom and the Economic Organization of Agriculture (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965).

&n
bsp; In 1931 Springdale was a tiny crosshatch of streets: Brooks Blevins, Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas, Ozarkers and Their Image (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Springdale, Arkansas.

  Don’s earliest memories were of strange men sleeping in a room: Don Tyson, interview by author, 2009.

  The orchards outside Springdale had been profitable for decades: Stephen F. Strausberg, From Hills and Hollers: Rise of the Poultry Industry in Arkansas (Fayetteville: Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, 1995), 92; Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Springdale, Arkansas.

  But John Tyson noticed a new opportunity growing in the shadow of the orchards: Don Tyson, interview by author, 2009; Strausberg, Hills and Hollers, 61.

  In the 1930s and 1940s, they worked a thin layer of soil: Blevins, Hill Folks, 147-169.

  Cash-poor farmers rented land: Strausberg, From Hills and Hollers, 33-34; Blevins, Hill Folks, 147-169.

  John Tyson took it a step further: Don Tyson, interview by author, 2009.

  During the Great Depression, farmers raised bountiful crops: Christopher Leonard, “1919 Farm Crisis Shows Some Bailouts Hard to Undo,” Associated Press, October 19, 2008.

  A federal law called the Agricultural Adjustment Act: Bruce L. Gardner, American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 216.

  When he was twenty-three years old, in 1953, Don Tyson took a trip: Don Tyson, interview by author, 2009.

  CHAPTER 3: EXPAND OR EXPIRE

  Haskell Jackson, a college-trained accountant: Haskell Jackson, interview by author, 2011.

  The Tyson Feed and Hatchery offices: Marvin Schwartz, Tyson: From Farm to Market (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1991), 10.