Poultry Growers in Arkansas: Agents or Independent Contractors
![handle is hein.journals/arklr63 and id is 857 raw text is: Poultry Growers in Arkansas: Agents or
Independent Contractors?*
1. INTRODUCTION
The poultry industry is uniquely designed.' Poultry
companies, known as integrators,2 operate hatcheries, feed mills,
and processing plants.3 Typically, integrators deliver possession
of their chicks to farmers (known as growers), but retain title
to them and provide feed and veterinary services for them.4 The
grower raises the chicks to market-weight broilers in the
grower's own facilities.5
Arkansas is home to numerous poultry integrators,
including Tyson Foods, Inc.; Simmons Foods, Inc.; Cobb-
Vantress, Inc.; and George's, Inc.6 With the relatively large
number of poultry integrators located in Arkansas, it is no
surprise that Arkansas is the second-largest commercial-broiler-
producing state in the nation;7 in fact, poultry production has
naturally been geographically concentrated.8 Poultry integrators
designed the geographic concentration of the poultry industry in
an attempt to increase overall profits by having hatcheries, feed
*The author would like to thank Susan Schneider, Professor of Law and Director of
the LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law, University of Arkansas School of Law,
and Ashley E. Norman, J.D. 2010, University of Arkansas School of Law. Without their
knowledge and support this comment would not have been possible.
1. JAMES M. MACDONALD, U. S. DEP'T OF AGRIC. ECON. RESEARCH SERV., THE
ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF U.S. BROILER PRODUCTION iii (June 2008), available at
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib38/eib38.pdf.
2. An integrator constitutes a company involved in more than one of [the] stages
of production. See Nat'l Broiler Mktg. Ass'n v. United States, 436 U.S. 816, 821 (1978).
3. MACDONALD, supra note 1, at 1-2.
4. Id.
5. Id.
6. Robert J. Smith, Suit over Poultry Litter Set to Begin Thursday, ARK. DEMOCRAT-
GAZETTE, Sept. 23, 2009, at IB.
7. Rank Among States: Production of Livestock, Arkansas, 2009, U.S. DEP'T OF
AGRIC. NAT'L AGRIC. STATISTICS SERV. ARK. FIELD OFFICE (2010), http://www.nass.
usda.gov/Statistics byState/Arkansas/Publications/StatisticalBulletin/lvskrank.pdf
(noting that in 2009, Arkansas raised over 1.05 billion broilers).
8. MACDONALD, supra note 1, at 3-4.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/arklr63&div=38&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Poultry Growers in Arkansas: Agents or Independent Contractors
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