A group of Franklin County citizens made their case Sunday against Pilgrim’s Pride and the company’s plan to build a rendering plant near Carnesville
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About 200 people attended a meeting Sunday at Franklin County High School to oppose a proposed Pilgrim’s Pride pet food ingredient plant near Carnesville. (Photos by Scoggins)
CARNESVILLE – A group of Franklin County citizens made their case Sunday against Pilgrim’s Pride and the company’s plan to build a rendering plant near Carnesville.
“I see something coming that I see is going to be a detriment to our county and our community,” Tax Commissioner Bobby Martin said.
Martin led the meeting of about 200 supporters of the Stop the Rendering group at the Telford Center for the Fine and Performing Arts at Franklin County High School.
Martin made the case that Pilgrim’s has a history of environmental problems and violations.
Pilgrim’s violations show a “disregard to doing the right thing,” Martin said.
Martin gave three examples of problems at Pilgrim’s plants he found via the internet.
In Marshville, N.C., the company didn’t report an ammonia spill accurately and in a timely manner, he said.
An environmental group in Florida won a record settlement from Pilgrim’s over pollution of the Suwannee River.
And, just two days before the announcement of the Carnesville plant, Pilgrim’s pleaded guilty to price fixing and agreed to pay a $107 million fine.
“I have serious doubts that Pilgrim’s can help us protect our quality of life in Carnesville, Ga.,” Martin said. “I feel somewhere along the way, Pilgrim’s lost their pride.”
Local poultry farmers said the company didn’t live up to promises it made to them and their farms as an integrator.
Eric Segars detailed how a few years after signing to grow chickens for Pilgrim’s, the company started being late delivering feed.
When he began documenting the problems and took the information to the Department of Agriculture, Pilgrim’s declared him a hostile grower and dropped his contract.
“They’re going to do Franklin County the same way they did the growers,” Segars said.
Ernie Dawkins said his story was similar to Segars’ and blamed the company’s practices on its Brazilian owners. When the company was owned by Bo Pilgrim, it was a good company to grow for.
When he grew for Pilgrim’s, the company wanted upgrades and asked him to make changes to his farm, only to want more when those were done.
“Everytime you turned around, they wanted something different,” Dawkins said. “Their word means nothing. They’ll tell you anything to get in here then they’ll dog you to death.”
Jeff Smith said he had grown chickens for three different companies.
“Pilgrim’s Pride was by far the sorriest company I ever grew for,” he said.
Several speakers said they didn’t want the plant to come to Carnesville.
Former Clerk of Court Missy Holbrook, who lives in Carnesville, said she doesn’t want to live in a community where she can’t go outside to play with her grandchildren.
Joe Dan Strickland said he lives nearby and his family owns landnext to the proposed plant’s location, but “I’d be against it if I lived in Timbuktu.
“The bottom line is, we deserve better,” Strickland said. “If a rendering plant comes in, I don’t think anything else will.”
Alabama attorney Christie Knowles, who is fighting a similar Pilgrim’s rendering plant in Gadsden, Ala., spoke to the group by telephone.
Knowles said Pilgrim’s has a history of fines, settlements and bad actions.
“Their history of noncompliance is shocking,” she said.
Knowles said Franklin County had an advantage over the situation in Alabama, where opponents had to go to court to force a hearing and vote on the proposal.
In Franklin County, Knowles said, opponents can reach out to planning board members and commissioners to stop the plant.
She pledged to help the Stop the Rendering group any way she could.
Dr. Frank Carl of Savannah RiverKeeper said it will be best to stop Pilgrim’s now instead of dealing with it after it is built.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Carl said. “If you can keep them from coming in, you’ll save yourself a lot of heartache.”
Carl said Pilgrim’s owner, the company JBS of Brazil, has refused some of its stockholders’ requests to be more environmentally friendly.
“They don’t care about the environment in Franklin County,” he said.
Martin urged members of the group to call commissioners but to be nice and thank them for their service.
The Industrial Building Authority and county commissioners want what is best for the county, Martin said, and the county must follow through with the process of considering PIlgrim’s application.
“They didn’t ask for this,” he said. “It was dropped in their lap. Keep it on the up and up. That will get us further than accusations.”
Martin also said it is important for the group to attend the planning and zoning board meeting tonight and, especially, the commissioners’ meeting on April 5.
“Let’s not wake up on April 6 with regret we did not do enough,” he said.