Perdue

Behind Perdue's "home sweet home" facade is a vast, multinational corporation that for decades has kept the Chesapeake Bay on life support ("Perdue woos consumers with home, sweet home," Nov. 22). Perdue is an industrial-scale polluter of our cherished waterways. Governments should therefore impose industrial-scale clean-up requirements on Perdue and similar companies. Perdue owns many of the 568 million chickens raised every year on the Delmarva Peninsula. These half-billion birds generate 1.1 billion pounds of manure every year, which contributes to the annual dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately, Perdue is not alone.

According to Wicomico County Executive Richard M. Pollitt Jr. ("So what if O'Malley emails with Perdue lawyer," May 13), "[n]ot only is our entire region and state helped by the economics of the chicken industry, but so is our environment. " How could he possibly arrive at that conclusion? The data tells quite a different story. Maryland crop and livestock production combined has constituted about 0.35 percent of the state's Gross Domestic Product for the past decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Commerce Department.

It is about time that people become aware about how secrets hidden by animal agriculture detrimentally affect us all. Animal waste disposal from farms supplying animals for slaughter to large meat factories such as Perdue is not inspected responsibly. At the same time, when the farming operations of their suppliers is questioned, the big company leaves the small farmers alone to fend for themselves. It is appalling how large agribusinesses protect their operations from being open to the public and are allowed to inspect and regulate themselves.

The Daily Times and The Baltimore Sun published an article in their May 9th editions reporting criticism by a Washington-based environmental extremist group of a so-called "cozy relationship" between Governor O'Malley and an attorney for our own Perdue, Inc. ("O'Malley ties to Perdue lawyer queried"). To them, I say, "And your problem is what?" From our perspective, we are deeply appreciative that we have a governor who understands from whence our life-blood flows and is willing to step up and fight hard to help us maintain the special place we call home.

The public deserves clean, safe water. Clean water in our food and drinks, clean water in our streams, and clean water in the Chesapeake Bay. Perdue contributes significantly to water pollution in Maryland, and therefore Perdue should pay its fair share to help restore our waterways and the bay ("Perdue: Chicken waste handled in environmentally responsible manner", April 6). The key problem with manure is that there's too much of it. According to a recent analysis by Water Stewardship Inc., the poultry industry in Maryland generates 300,000 tons of surplus manure with 4,000 more tons of phosphorus than needed to grow all the crops in the major poultry producing counties.

On January 4, 2006, JACK, beloved husband of Betty Perdue (nee Loftis), devoted father of Jack L. Perdue and his wife Denise, Mark Perdue and his wife Mary; dear brother of Bob Perdue, loving grandfather of David, Chuck, Mellisa, Logan and Emma. Friends may call at the CONNELLY FUNERAL HOME OF DUNDALK, P.A., 7110 Sollers Point Road, on Friday, 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, 9:30 A.M. Interment Oak Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Community Hospice of Maryland, 9940 Franklin Square Drive, Baltimore, MD 21236.

For animal rights activists, throwing a pie at a business leader while he is serving the state in a voluntary capacity is a minor piece of mischief, calculated to make headlines and to cause pTC embarrassment. No doubt Frank Perdue, the target of a pie tossed at a University of Maryland Board of Regents meeting Friday, found the incident messy and inconvenient. For the rest of us, the incident was an example of activists who don't bother to distinguish between silly and serious.We have our problems with the animal rights agenda since we believe the life of a human being carries more inherent value than that of a chicken or a pig or a dog. We also believe that vegetarianism, a cardinal tenet of many animal rights groups, should not be forced on people.

The Daily Times and The Baltimore Sun published an article in their May 9th editions reporting criticism by a Washington-based environmental extremist group of a so-called "cozy relationship" between Governor O'Malley and an attorney for our own Perdue, Inc. ("O'Malley ties to Perdue lawyer queried"). To them, I say, "And your problem is what?" From our perspective, we are deeply appreciative that we have a governor who understands from whence our life-blood flows and is willing to step up and fight hard to help us maintain the special place we call home.

Perdue Farms Inc., the nation's fourth-largest chicken processor, is engaged in merger talks with Showell Farms Inc., one of its oldest and closest competitors.Officials in both Maryland-based companies yesterday described the talks as preliminary, but insiders and industry analysts said a merger would make sense.And if the companies merge, it may set off a wave of consolidation among poultry processors, some predicted.Perdue Chairman James A. Perdue said in a prepared statement that he has long known the Guerrieri family, which founded and runs Showell Farms near the Perdue operation.

Perdue Farms said yesterday that it has completed the acquisition of Eastern Shore-based competitor Showell Farms, creating the nation's third-largest poultry company, processing more than 11 million chickens each week.The acquisition also provides Perdue a bigger presence in Florida, where Showell has operated for 20 years. Perdue, a 75-year-old company with processing plants in six states, has sold its products there only since January 1994."The acquisition provides a tremendous opportunity for all who work for the two companies," said James A. Perdue, chairman of the Salisbury-based firm.

A series of emails between Gov. Martin O'Malley and Perdue's corporate lawyer shows what an environmental group calls a "cozy relationship" between the two law school classmates as Maryland's chief executive weighs farm pollution regulations of concern to the Salisbury-based poultry producer. Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based environmental group, used Maryland's Public Information Act to obtain 70 pages of emails between O'Malley and Herbert D. Frerichs Jr., a partner with the Venable law firm in Baltimore who is general counsel for the Perdue family holding company that owns and operates Perdue Food Products, Perdue AgriBusiness and other entities.

A series of emails between Gov. Martin O'Malley  and Purdue Industry's top lawyer have drawn criticism from an environmental group for showing undue "coziness" between the two. O'Malley's office denies that conclusion -- but the exchanges do provide political-types a peek into how the state's governor manages key relationships (and some insight as to what exactly he's doing with his Blackberry all the time.) The emails , obtained by public interest organization Food and Water Watch, cover three main topics: O'Malley's attempts to bring Perdue on board with a legislative priority; the governor smoothing ruffled feelings from the poultry giant after a news story the company didn't like; and requests by the lawyer the company for help securing federal funds for a project he supports.

There is no doubt who actually represents the 1 percent in the case Farrell Keough describes in his recent letter to the editor ("UMD law clinic sues on behalf of the 1 percent," Dec. 30). With more than $4.5 billion in revenue, Perdue Farms is one of the largest chicken and turkey producers in the world, processing and packing more than 3 billion pounds of poultry a year thanks to some 2,200 contracted poultry producers in about 15 states. Despite the benefit of these immense revenues, Perdue claims it bears no responsibility for the waste produced by the chickens it sells; instead, it takes the chickens, makes a profit, and tries to leave the growers with the mess.

It is about time that people become aware about how secrets hidden by animal agriculture detrimentally affect us all. Animal waste disposal from farms supplying animals for slaughter to large meat factories such as Perdue is not inspected responsibly. At the same time, when the farming operations of their suppliers is questioned, the big company leaves the small farmers alone to fend for themselves. It is appalling how large agribusinesses protect their operations from being open to the public and are allowed to inspect and regulate themselves.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has revived a simmering political dispute over the University of Maryland law school's role in a lawsuit accusing an Eastern Shore farm and the Perdue poultry company of polluting a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. In a letter that became public Thursday, O'Malley wrote to law school Dean Phoebe Haddon this week to complain about the "ongoing injustice" of the environmental law clinic pursuing "costly litigation of questionable merit"...

A federal class action lawsuit accusing managers at Perdue Inc. of conspiring to depress wages by hiring hundreds of illegal immigrants will move forward in Maryland instead of in Alabama, where it was filed a year ago. The lawsuit against former and current human resource employees and supervisors of the Eastern Shore poultry processor was filed last March on behalf of hundreds or even thousands of hourly workers at 16 Perdue plants in Maryland...

Perdue Farms Inc., the Salisbury-based poultry processor, yesterday received a big boost in its efforts to expand its markets overseas from the state of Virginia.Perdue officials joined those of the Virginia Port Authority in a dockside ceremony marking the opening of a $7.5 million cold storage plant at the port of Virginia's Norfolk terminal.The facility was constructed exclusively for Perdue, and will allow the company to freeze up to 210 million pounds of fresh poultry annually.The frozen poultry will then be shipped to Perdue's international customers, primarily in Eastern Europe and the Far East.

Frank Perdue, who built a chicken empire by hawking his chicken on television for the last 20 years, will let his son, James, do the crowing from now on.In television advertisements scheduled to start airing next week, the elder Mr. Perdue says that although he's nearing retirement age -- he's 74 -- the company that bears his name won't be slacking off.Instead, as the cameras follow him through office corridors, Mr. Perdue dons a white coat and opens the...

The Humane Society of the United States filed a class action lawsuit Monday in New Jersey against Maryland-based Perdue Farms, accusing the nation's third-largest poultry producer of falsely advertising its chickens as "humanely raised. " The suit was brought on behalf of a New Jersey woman who bought chicken at a BJ's Wholesale Club bearing the Harvestland label, a trade name used by Perdue for birds raised in Kentucky and marketed as "purely all-natural" and "humanely raised. " The suit alleges that the poultry producer's marketing violates New Jersey's consumer fraud law. The complaint seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages against Perdue, as well as an injunction barring it from making claims that it treats its birds humanely.