July 18, 1999
Buckeye Egg - Opinion scrambled in farm country
By Carol Bogart
Staff Writer
Dust rises in a cloud as a caravan of Farm Bureau members enters the grounds of Buckeye Egg Farm on the outskirts of Marseilles in Marion County. Dust. But few flies.
The factory has become, for some, a stark symbol of change. It's nearly 700-foot-long metal-sided buildings a harsh reminder of the trend away from family farms toward the impersonal, massive scale of factory farming.
Saturday, Farm Bureau board members from three counties -- Seneca, Wyandotte and Hancock -- embarked on a tour of the plant some see as the beginning of the end of life as Ohio farmers once knew it.
As the cars make the turn into Buckeye Egg (formerly AgriGeneral), the house just before it sports a For Sale sign. A home behind the factory has decorated its yard with signs of a different sort. Signs that read: "AgriGeneral Rule #1 -- construct pond, then get permit"; AgriGeneral Rule #2 -- get permit for 14 barns, build 16; AgriGeneral Rule #3 -- destroy roads, ask township and county to rebuild"; "Factory Farms plus Global market = Cesspool of Ohio"; "Ohio's largest manure factory --Buckeye Egg"; And, pointedly, "Does Farm Bureau represent farmers -- or factory farms?"
Many of those on Saturday's tour would say both. Seneca County Farm Bureau director Darren Frank says if Ohio doesn't reap the financial rewards of taxes and jobs generated by factory farming, maybe Mexico will. Gary Baldosser, the Bureau's president, says the world has changed. With the opening of global markets, for Ohio to retain its pre-eminence as an agricultural supplier, it must accept, he says, the realities of "economy of scale." He says, "In order for us to be competitive in the world market we're going to need to change."
Inside the factory, there's no doubt it's immensely efficient. Local people and what appear to be migrant workers fill more than 100 jobs -- sorting eggs, filling cartons -- engaged in assorted tasks that don't look much different from an assembly line at Ford Motor.
As for the chickens, a computer keeps track of when they're ventilated and fed. After their peak laying cycle is completed -- at about 84 weeks -- the hens are processed as chopped meat, ultimately winding up as an ingredient in Campbell's Soup or a chicken McNugget.
Among the Farm Bureau members, many are wide-eyed as they watch fragile eggs move along conveyor belts from chicken to carton. Some are broken. Many are discarded. Plans are to increase the number of chickens at the eight-month-old Marseilles plant from two million to 3.2 million. General manager Paul Gabriel says there are an additional 2.5 million chickens at Buckeye Egg's plant in Mount Victory. All told, all plants combined, Buckeye Egg houses 12-million birds.
Eggs are brokered to a long list of clients both here and abroad. One big local consumer is Krogers. The Mount Victory and Marseilles plants produce, annually, nearly eight million eggs.
So how do older members of the group feel as they watch this futuristic "farming?" Seneca County's Eileen Gabel says, "I like the technology. The cleanliness. The atmosphere. Seems like they have a good working relationship."
One complaint about Buckeye Egg has been flies. Residents have complained about flies so thick they couldn't see out their windows. Gabriel acknowledges that the company's answer a couple years ago created a new complaint. Hordes of what locals call "Bucky" beetles.
The beetles, Gabriel says, were put in the hen droppings to eat fly larvae. The plan, he says, was to use beetles to control the flies, then hit the beetles hard with insecticide, killing most before the droppings were sold as manure. Due to a "communication breakdown," Gabriel says the insecticide was never applied. Resulting, he admits, in a "beetle explosion" at Mount Victory.
Whatever kinks remain to be worked out in Buckeye Egg's operation, it was clear most Farm Bureau members seemed impressed. Gabel says it's "a lot bigger" than farming she remembers as a girl and adds, "I'm used to about 20 hens and that's it."
Wyandotte county's Bob Hackethorn agrees. He calls Buckeye Egg "fascinating." Hackethorn remembers the days of having "a dozen chickens out in the back yard" and says, "Today to see something like this, you just can't compare the two. I can't anyway. It's just fantastic to see something like this."
He says, "I think the megafarm's are going to be around forever so we're going to have to learn to live with them. It's an opportunity for me to sell my corn to them." The chickens eat a combination of oyster shells, meat scraps, gravel and ground corn. Keith Stollar, who is in charge of the chickens, says Buckeye Egg plans to erect a feed mill. He says, "All the corn within a 75-mile radius of this feed mill, if every field was corn (Buckeye Egg) could buy it."