The background behind one of the biggest food recalls in US history. This firm's peanuts were in lots of stuff we ate. ugh. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/14/AR2009021401758_2.html?hpid=topnewsThe Rise And Fall of A Peanut Empire
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Even as PCA was rapidly expanding, a former buyer for a major snack manufacturer said the Parnells found success by operating a low-cost business that relied on the cheapest peanuts they could find. They used minimum wage labor and a bare-bones front office.
"The old man used to look for distressed situations: Someone over-inventoried or had peanuts from last year that they had to move," said David Brooks, who was a buyer for a snack company that refused to purchase from Parnell because of concerns about sanitation and what he called the "culture" of the family business. "He would aggressively look for these, making phone calls, hunting people down. Stewart grew up in that and was the same way."
On three occasions in the mid-1980s, Brooks inspected PCA's Gorman plant to determine whether to buy its peanut products, he said. Each time, he gave the plant a failing grade.
"It was just filthy," said Brooks, who has since retired from the food business. "Dust was all over the beams, the braces of the building. The roofs leaked, the windows would be open, and birds would fly through the building. . . . It was just a time bomb waiting to go off, and everybody in the peanut industry in Georgia, Virginia and Texas -- they all knew." Victoria Brown, 32, said she worked in PCA's Blakely plant for three months before she was fired two years ago for coming to work late. She earned $6.25 an hour sorting peanuts and picking out rocks, sticks and other debris before washing them. The plant was stiflingly hot, she said, and the roof leaked. "Water would come in when it rained," Brown said.
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