EAU CLAIRE, WI (WSAU) – A Wisconsin congressman is requesting answers from the USDA after one of the largest chicken producers in the Midwest dissolved earlier this month following a failed attempt to declare bankruptcy.
According to WQOW, Rep. Derrick Van Orden is joining Reps. Brad Finstad (MN) and Randy Feenstra (IA) in writing a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in order to try and get answers about how the agencies loan and grant process could allow Pure Prairie Poultry to back out of a deal that contracted dozens of Wisconsin farmers to care for hundreds of thousands of chickens.
“Many of our poultry farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa were left in the lurch by the USDA’s absence of oversight and accountability of Pure Prairie Poultry. The USDA will answer for the $45.6 million in loans and grants given to Pure Prairie Poultry, and PPP will answer for what they did with that money before they stiffed our farmers. I am so thankful for our farmers and how they put the welfare of their flocks first and am proud to advocate for them on the House Agriculture Committee,” Van Orden said in a statement.
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin also wrote Secretary Vilsack requesting financial relief for the farmers, as it’s not expected that they’ll receive the agreed-upon compensation from the Minnesota-based company.
Earlier this month, Wisconsin DATCP instructed farmers who were left with the chickens and can no longer afford to feed them to give them away for donations or to humanely euthanize the birds.
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