Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Poultry farming |
Founder | David Rust |
Headquarters | Seymour, Indiana |
Key people | Marcus Rust, CEO [1] [2] & Tony Wesner, COO |
Products | Eggs |
Revenue | $608.74 million [3] |
Number of employees | 2,000 [4] |
Website | GoodEgg.com |
Rose Acre Farms is the second largest egg producer in the United States [5] and employs more than 2,000 people. [4] The company is based in Seymour, Indiana, and has facilities in seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina, plus joint ventures in Colorado and Hawaii. Rose Acre Farms is one of several producers that annually donate approximately 30,000 hard boiled eggs to the U.S. government for use at the White House Easter Egg Roll. [6]
In 2013 the company began a 30-year effort to refit its facilities to cage-free standards. [7]
In 2018, Rose Acre Farms donated $200,000 for a new animal science complex on the nearby campus of Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana. [8]
In April 2018, Rose Acre Farms announced that, due to concerns over Salmonella , they would be voluntarily recalling more than 200 million eggs which originated at its facility in Hyde County, North Carolina. All recalled eggs were conventional eggs [9] from hens raised in battery cage facilities. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation found, among other things, numerous rodents in the manure pits below the battery cages. [10] It was the largest egg recall in the country since 2010. [11]
Former board chairman John Rust stepped down in favor of his brother and the company's CEO, Marcus, in September 2023, to focus on a campaign running for the US Senate. [2] [12] Three months later, the company was found liable in a lawsuit alleging that it colluded, along with Cal-Maine, United Egg Producers, and United States Egg Marketers, to reduce the supply of eggs and increase prices between 2004 and 2008. [13] The plaintiffs in the case, a group of large food manufacturers led by Kraft Foods, originally filed the long-running lawsuit in 2011, but it did not reach trial until October 2023. [14]
Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. Cadbury is internationally headquartered in Greater London, and operates in more than 50 countries worldwide. It is known for its Dairy Milk chocolate, the Creme Egg and Roses selection box, and many other confectionery products. One of the best-known British brands, in 2013 The Daily Telegraph named Cadbury among Britain's most successful exports.
Conagra Brands, Inc. is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, and food service establishments. Based on its 2021 revenue, the company ranked 331st on the 2022 Fortune 500.
A product recall is a request from a manufacturer to return a product after the discovery of safety issues or product defects that might endanger the consumer or put the maker/seller at risk of legal action.
Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chickens are killed for consumption annually. Chickens raised for eggs are known as layers, while chickens raised for meat are called broilers.
Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. is an American fresh egg producer, established in 1969 and based in Jackson, Mississippi. Its eggs are sold mostly in mid-Atlantic, midwestern, southeastern, and southwestern states. These regions account for approximately a quarter of US egg consumption. Cal-Maine is a public company trading on the NASDAQ, headed by its founder, Fred R. Adams, Jr., whose family owns a controlling interest.
Proposition 2 was a California ballot proposition in that state's general election on November 4, 2008. It passed with 63% of the votes in favor and 37% against. Submitted to the Secretary of State as the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, the initiative's name was amended to officially be known as the Standards for Confining Farm Animals initiative. The official title of the statute enacted by the proposition is the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.
The 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak was an outbreak of salmonellosis across multiple U.S. states due to Salmonella enterica serovar Saintpaul. Over the course of the outbreak, 1442 cases were identified across 43 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigation determined that jalapeño peppers imported from Mexico as well as Serrano peppers were major sources of the outbreak. Tomatoes may have been a source as well. The outbreak lasted from April to August 2008.
Humans and their hominid relatives have consumed eggs for millions of years. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especially chickens. People in Southeast Asia began harvesting chicken eggs for food by 1500 BCE. Eggs of other birds, such as ducks and ostriches, are eaten regularly but much less commonly than those of chickens. People may also eat the eggs of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Fish eggs consumed as food are known as roe or caviar.
Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) was a peanut-processing business which is now defunct as a result of one of the most massive and lethal food-borne contamination events in U.S. history.
United Egg Producers (UEP) is a Capper–Volstead agricultural cooperative in the United States which represents the interests of American egg producers.
Poultry farming is a part of the United States's agricultural economy.
Groupe Lactalis S.A. is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier S.A.
The StarLink corn recalls occurred in the autumn of 2000, when over 300 food products were found to contain a genetically modified corn that had not been approved for human consumption. It was the first-ever recall of a genetically modified food. The anti-GMO activist coalition Genetically Engineered Food Alert, which detected and first reported the contamination, was critical of the FDA for not doing its job. The recall of Taco Bell-branded taco shells, manufactured by Kraft Foods and sold in supermarkets, was the most publicized of the recalls. One settlement resulted in $60 million going to Taco Bell franchisees for lost sales due to the damage to the Taco Bell brand.
An Act to Prevent Cruelty to Farm Animals, more commonly known as Question 3, was the third initiative on the 2016 Massachusetts ballot. The measure requires Massachusetts farmers to give chickens, pigs, and calves enough room to turn around, stand up, lie down, and fully extend their limbs. It also prohibits the sale of eggs or meat from animals raised in conditions that did not meet these standards.
Salmonellosis annually causes, per CDC estimation, about 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths in the United States every year.
The 2018 US egg recall was a product recall for fresh chicken eggs in the United States beginning on April 13, 2018. The United States Department of Agriculture recalled more than 200 million eggs after a salmonella outbreak connected to Iowa egg farms, including Rose Acre Farms.
Proposition 12 was a California ballot proposition in that state's general election on November 6, 2018. The measure was self-titled the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act. The measure passed, by a vote of about 63% Yes to 37% No.
Food safety in the United States relates to the processing, packaging, and storage of food in a way that prevents food-borne illness within the United States. The beginning of regulation on food safety in the United States started in the early 1900s, when several outbreaks sparked the need for litigation managing food in the food industry. Over the next few decades, the United States created several government agencies in an effort to better understand contaminants in food and to regulate these impurities. Many laws regarding food safety in the United States have been created and amended since the beginning of the 1900s. Food makers and their products are inspected and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture.
Hillandale Farms is one of the largest suppliers of chicken eggs in the United States. Headquartered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, it was founded in 1958 by Orland Bethel.