AR-News: Buckeye Egg Farm A Rallying Point For Big-Farm Opponents

[Pat Wolff]

Buckeye Egg Farm a rallying point for big-farm
opponents

August 25, 2003
 
TOLEDO (AP) -- Even if the state succeeds in shutting
down Buckeye Egg Farm, its legacy will long be
remembered. 

The farm, with 14 million chickens and a slew of
environmental complaints, has changed the way many
Ohioans view big- farm operations and, in some cases,
created a mistrust of the agriculture industry. 

Environmental and animal rights activists have used
the problems with the state's largest egg producer as
a rallying point to carry out their message against
megafarms. 

"If you get a bad actor like Buckeye Egg, it plays
right into their hands," said Ohio Department
Agriculture Director Fred Dailey. "They point to them
and say 'see, this is going to happen to you.' 

"Many associated the rest of the industry with that,"
he said. 

In July, Dailey ordered the farm's closure because of
repeated failure to operate within the conditions of
its permits. An environmental review board has delayed
the shutdown while reviewing Buckeye Egg Farm's appeal
of the order. 

Even the word megafarm was little used in Ohio until
Buckeye Egg came along in the early 1980s. As the
operations grew, so did the complaints. 

Neighbors of the farms protested for years about foul
odors, insect and rodent infestations and creeks
polluted by manure runoff. 

The agriculture director said it wasn't just the
neighbors who wanted the egg farm closed for good. 

"Many farm organizations came to us and said, 'Isn't
there something that can be done about this?"' Dailey
said. 

Buckeye Egg has about 90 barns still open in Licking,
Hardin and Wyandot counties. It produces 4 percent of
the nation's eggs -- 2.6 billion last year. 

Through changes in its name -- it was first known as
AgriGeneral -- and changes in managers, the company
built a lengthy list of fines and legal battles with
regulators. 

"I think they were the poster child for all the things
that are wrong," said Nancy Raeder of Caldwell,
chairwoman of the Ohio Family Farm Coalition. "They
were just so blatant." 

Raeder said Buckeye Egg "gave a point to rally around,
and it was easy to use them as the example." 

She said it also has taken attention away from other
farms that deserve scrutiny. "You hear about Buckeye
Egg, but they don't talk about all the other ones with
problems." 

But Tim Weaver, whose three-generation egg farm in
Versailles is one of the largest in the state, said
it's not fair to lump all farms together with Buckeye
Egg. 

"The perception some people has is to group all of us
together," Weaver said. "Buckeye Egg Farm does not
typify the majority of egg producers in the state." 

Weaver, president of Weaver Brothers Inc., said the
standard of care in animal agriculture has been raised
in recent years. 

"We all must exercise the highest level of care," he
said. "I think my neighbors recognize that we're doing
everything we can to be responsible." 

 


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