Group Files Federal Lawsuit Questioning Chicken Barn Loans
A group of concern citizens is challenging the USDA’s use of a loan program to help fund chicken barn construction and operations.
Photo by Steve Corlew / Lexington Progress
Article by Steve Corlew-
A local large scale chicken farm operation with ties to Tyson Foods, is being sued for receiving a government loan aimed at helping small farmers.
A group of concerned citizens has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Services Agency, Farm Credit Mid-America, FLCA and two Henderson County farming operations in federal court in Jackson.
The lawsuit alleges that a federal loan program meant for “family farms” is illegally being used to finance industrial poultry operations controlled by large corporations.
Lawyers for the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed the lawsuit in the Western District of Tennessee Eastern Division of the U.S. District Court, on December 12, 2022.
The poultry warehouses are located on Judge McClough Road and White Cemetery Road in northern Henderson County.
This is a first-of-its-kind lawsuit addressing how the federal government loans money to fund large scale poultry operations. The operation includes 16 industrial-scale poultry warehouses that are more than 50 feet wide and 600 feet long and would raise millions of chickens for Tyson Foods each year.
Attorney’s claim that Tyson Foods would control how the barns are built, how the chickens are raised, and even what temperature the barns are kept. The attorneys claim that…
For complete coverage, see the January 4th edition of The Lexington Progress.
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