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About Kreider Farms
Kreider Farms, a Lancaster
County egg production company that also operates a dairy
farm and several restaurants by the same name, houses 3.5
million egg laying hens at its five egg production facilities
(1). According to the most recent available data, Kreider
produces an average of 4 million eggs per day (2) and was
the 35 th largest egg producer in the nation (3). The footage
found on this sie was taken by undercover investigators
in the fall of 2004 at three of Kreider Farms' facilities:
870 Bridge Valley Road, Columbia , PA , 1145 Colebrook Road,
Mt. Joy , PA and 301 Longview Dr . Middletown , PA. ( Kreider
also maintains facilities in Manheim and Mount Pleasant
, PA. )
Kreider Farms eggs are
distributed throughout the Philadelphia region, and nationally,
at supermarkets including Genuardis, Giant, Safeway, and
A&P.
Kreider farms participates in the Pennsylvania Egg Quality Assurance Program (PEQAP), “a voluntary industry program intended to minimize Salmonella enteritidis (SE) contamination in chicken (shell) eggs,” though “this program does not guarantee shell eggs to be free contamination.” The PEQAP has no guidelines regarding humane treatment of hens. On its website, Kreider Farms states that
“It should be no secret in life that animals (like people) are most productive when they are happy and well treated. Kreider Farms has always been a leader in the development of first rate animal husbandry care. As a result…happy chickens lay lots of top quality eggs!” The website also states that Kreider adheres to the philosophy of its founders Noah and Mary, who demonstrated “the highest of moral and ethical values.”
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While it bills itself as a family farm, this company of 450 employees has drawn the ire of neighbors and neighboring farmers. In 2001, its proposal to develop its fifth site at Mount Pleasant was met by widespread opposition from local farmers and residents - due to environmental, health, and other concerns (4). In 2004, a mild strain of avian influenza was discovered in a flock of chickens at Kreider's Mt. Joy facility (5). Avian influenza, which have killed several dozen people in Asia (6) , has the potential to “r esult in sustained human-to-human transmission and pandemic influenza” according to the Center for Disease Control (7). Avian influenza is exacerbated and spread by intensive egg production.
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