Citing a recent Watchdog Writers Group and Investigate Midwest investigation, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, accused Tyson Foods of using “wrong and anti-American” tactics in trying to silence its former contract poultry farmers.
On Dec. 17, Investigate Midwest reported that after closing several plants, including one in Dexter, Missouri, Tyson worked to keep a competitor from buying the closed plant, which prevented its former farmers from continuing to raise chickens for meat.
The article also reported that Tyson subpoenaed several of its former poultry farmers for communication records with journalists and federal investigators. Tyson’s subpoenas were in response to a lawsuit filed by some of its former farmers.
“Now, your company is apparently trying to deter injured farmers from speaking out against it. This is wrong and anti-American, and you must immediately stop.”
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, to tyson foods
Hawley referenced the article in a Dec. 20 letter to Tyson CEO Donnie King.
“You have previously stonewalled my efforts to learn the truth about your shutdown of poultry plants in Noel and Dexter, Missouri,” Hawley wrote. “Now, your company is apparently trying to deter injured farmers from speaking out against it. This is wrong and anti-American, and you must immediately stop.”
In his letter, Hawley accused King of trying to “chill its critics’ free speech” and acting as a “deterrent to First Amendment-protected speech” of its former farmers.
“Farmers will, of course, be far less likely to speak to the press at all if they’re required to track and preserve all those communications, and then turn them over to the very corporation they’re challenging in court,” Hawley wrote.
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