It’s been a week of fires and roadblocks and worrying about the potential loss of 40,000 turkeys for brothers Willie and Riley Benedetti.

First came the fire that roared toward Calistoga Road last Sunday night. Only a stand by Cal Fire on the western side of the road kept the flames from jumping over and onto the Benedettis’ 400-acre ranch northeast of Santa Rosa and turning Willie Bird Turkeys into Willie Bird Roasted Turkeys. Then came the daily struggle to get 16 tons of feed through roadblocks meant to keep everyone out except firefighting personnel. “Cal Fire saved these turkeys early last Monday morning.” Willie, 68, said Sunday afternoon. Not wanting to risk it again, he and his brother started evacuating the birds. Read more

Family-owned California poultry producer Foster Farms today donated $100,000 to the Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB) to help meet the critical needs of families displaced by the Northern California fires. REFB, based in Santa Rosa, serves communities that are among the most affected by the fires, with thousands of homes destroyed and tens of thousands of residents evacuated.

Foster Farms also pledged to deliver 10,000 pounds of poultry products to REFB once they resume their ability to accept and distribute perishable food donations.

“Foster Farms has served the communities of Northern California for decades, and we are committed to helping our neighbors whose lives have been devastated by the raging wildfires,” said Laura Flanagan, CEO of Foster Farms. “Helping those in need is a year-round priority for Foster Farms, and we hope that our donations will give a ray of hope to those who have lost so much. We encourage other Northern California businesses and individuals to support REFB in its efforts to help those displaced by the fires.”  Read more

Assemblyman Adam C. Gray (D-Merced) expressed frustration and disappointment today upon learning that the Governor had vetoed Gray’s fair water rights hearing legislation. “For more than half a century, the State Water Resources Control Board has kept a dirty little secret,” said Gray. “They are the judge, the jury, and the prosecution in the water world. They have zero accountability to the people of California, yet their decisions impact the daily lives of millions of people.”

Gray’s bill, AB 313, would have inserted checks and balances back into water rights enforcement. Rather than allowing the Water Board to write the rules and then unilaterally decide who breaks them as is done now, the bill would have required water rights enforcement hearings to occur at the Office of Administrative Hearings under the direction of an administrative law judge.

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Citing President Donald Trump’s calls for deregulation, Republican lawmakers and the chicken industry are aggressively lobbying to speed up poultry inspection lines – a change the Obama administration had rejected after warnings it would endanger workers and increase food contamination.

The National Chicken Council has asked the USDA to allow poultry plants participating in a new inspection system to operate “at any line speed” they can safely handle, freeing them from the 140 birds-per-minute limit that the Obama administration had established for most plants.

The Obama-era cap is an “arbitrary” limit that is holding back the industry’s ability to compete in the global marketplace, the National Chicken Council stated in its petition.  Read more

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All you never knew about chicken and didn’t even think to ask. That’s what Atlanta public health journalist and author Maryn McKenna dishes out in “Big Chicken,” her full-bodied examination of chicken production in this country. McKenna zeroes in on the industry’s longtime reliance on antibiotics in order to quickly grow nice and plump birds for our dining pleasure.  Read more

The Animal Agriculture Alliance is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Over that 30 years, our organization has seen changes and innovation in technology on the farm and in communications. Today, the Alliance has 300 members and donors. We have grown from one part-time employee to five full-time staff members, plus interns and contractors who provide critical services. Thirty years ago, the Alliance started as the Animal Industry Foundation with membership from the national livestock and poultry groups, Continental Grain, International Multifoods, Purina Mills, Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis), American Feed Manufacturers Association (AFMA, now American Feed Industry Association) and American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).  Read more

Controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) is being pitched as a more humane alternative to electrical stunning of chickens and turkeys prior to slaughter, but is that truly the case? That is a question for which the poultry industry is still seeking to find a definitive answer.  Read more