Good Eggs
The national egg-salmonella scare didn鈥檛 surprise these social-justice 乐播传媒ies
By Edgar Allen Beem
Over the summer, a salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,600 people nationwide was traced to an unsanitary factory farm in Iowa, prompting the recall of some 550 million eggs.
One of the farms involved in the massive recall, Wright County Egg, is owned by Austin 鈥淛ack鈥� DeCoster, an industrial farmer whom the Iowa Supreme Court in 2002 labeled a 鈥渉abitual offender鈥� against state environmental laws.
Here in Maine, headlines involving Jack DeCoster and eggs are nothing new.
Over the years, DeCoster鈥檚 mega-egg farm in Turner, about 14 miles from campus, has been investigated for myriad problems, from child-labor and immigration violations to the illegal dumping of chicken carcasses. (Now known as Quality Egg of New England, the operation was not involved in the 2010 national egg recall.)
Mostly, however, the farm has drawn fire for its poor treatment of migrant farmers, who live on farm property in what some have described as ramshackle, Grapes of Wrath housing. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, LL.D. 鈥�01 once said that the DeCoster farm in Turner was 鈥渁n agricultural sweatshop.鈥�
“It gives students a sense of what it鈥檚 like to do social-justice work that really is worker-centered 鈥� it鈥檚 not about themselves.”
By virtue of this multifaceted ignominy, the farm and its largely migrant work force have long been a real-world, hands-on classroom for 乐播传媒 students, professors, and alumni, who have helped address a host of human rights, health and safety, labor, and environmental issues at the DeCoster facility.
鈥淭he best thing about it,鈥� Professor of English Carole Anne Taylor says, 鈥渋s that it gives students a sense of what it鈥檚 like to do social-justice work that really is worker-centered 鈥� it鈥檚 not about themselves. It鈥檚 not charity work.鈥�
From 1998 until 2003, Taylor was an adviser to the Maine Rural Workers Coalition, whose goal was to help rural workers develop leadership skills. Along the way, the group got help from 乐播传媒 students as translators and English tutors.
Mike Travers 鈥�00 helped organize the MRWC and served on its board of directors, otherwise made up mostly of migrant workers. A double major in American cultural studies and Spanish, Travers was an invaluable translator, yet he exhibits a healthy perspective about his contributions.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know the answers,鈥� says Travers, a bilingual coordinator at a Los Angeles elementary school. 鈥淎ll I could do for them was translate what they wanted translated.鈥�
In 1999, when DeCoster workers won a settlement in a class-action lawsuit to recover unpaid overtime, 乐播传媒 students and faculty were on the front lines, doing legwork and phone calling for the workers鈥� attorney, Donald Fontaine.
Taylor and others worked the phones to track down 1,275 former DeCoster workers in Maine, Texas, and Mexico who ultimately received a reported $5 million in overtime. A typical class-action lawsuit, Fontaine explains, locates about 5 to 10 percent of those entitled to money. 鈥淚n this case, we found almost 50 percent of the people,鈥� he says.
An organization with an ongoing presence at the Turner egg farm is the Maine Migrant Health Program, which delivers onsite medical services to migrant and seasonal workers in a range of Maine farming ventures, from egg farming to apple picking.
Over the last decade, MMHP director Barbara Ginley 鈥�88 has involved a dozen students and alums, some directly from 乐播传媒, others through programs like AmeriCorps.
Like Taylor, Ginley stresses the importance of students鈥� learning to work for the farm workers and their families, recognizing the realities of their difficult lives. 鈥淔or volunteers, the experience is a values-check. They have to realize that the end game is about empowering people to do for themselves.鈥�
Ginley highlights two such projects that involved 乐播传媒ies: one to evaluate the capacity of the DeCoster community to serve migrant workers鈥� transportation needs, and the other to create a resource guide to help foreign-trained healthcare workers transfer their skills to the U.S. workplace.
鈥淭he goal of both was to create greater capacity for independence within the farmworker community,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hile we often advocate on issues like workplace safety, we also know when to get out of the way, so to speak.鈥�
鈥淲hat we were trying to show is, 鈥榃ho needs factory farms?鈥欌�� Haaz says. 鈥淎ll you really need are local eggs and family farms.鈥�
In fall 2004, Sam Haaz 鈥�06, Andrew Currier Stokes 鈥�06, and the late Nate Dorpalen 鈥�06 collaborated on a 20-minute documentary film about the DeCoster egg farm entitled Fowl Play.
Haaz, now a law student at Drexel University, recalls how he and Dorpalen were nearly overcome by the reek of ammonia when they sneaked into the DeCoster barns to shoot rare footage of the millions of laying hens packed so tightly into cages that they could barely move.
The documentary also features extensive interviews with local farmers. 鈥淲hat we were trying to show is, 鈥榃ho needs factory farms?鈥欌�� Haaz says. 鈥淎ll you really need are local eggs and family farms.鈥�
Amen to that, says Jesse Laflamme 鈥�00, manager of Pete & Gerry鈥檚 Organic Eggs, based in New Hampshire and one of the largest organic egg farms in the country. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the antithesis of DeCoster,鈥� Laflamme says.
鈥淭he irony is that I almost couldn鈥檛 go to 乐播传媒 because DeCoster was putting family farms out of business.鈥� By the 1990s, family egg operations were rapidly disappearing from the New England landscape, their big chicken barns often becoming winter storage for boats and cars.
But his family farm has rebounded, in part because of the growing awareness of the social and environmental evils of factory farming. 鈥淚n a roundabout way,鈥� Laflamme says, 鈥溊植ゴ� had a hand in the survival of our family farm.鈥�
Nate Dorpalen 鈥�06
Nate Dorpalen 鈥�06, who helped to produce the Fowl Play documentary referenced in this story, died Oct. 8 in a hiking accident while backpacking on the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway.
