On Thursday October 9th, longtime President and CEO of Foster Farms, one of the largest poultry producers in the United States (some reports note annual revenue of approximately 2.3 billion), announced he was stepping down. Ron Foster has been at the helm of Foster Farms for eleven years, taking over the company started by his grandparents Max and Verda Foster approximately 75 years ago, in 1939. Prior to heading the poultry operations at Foster Farms he was the president of Foster Farms Dairy, another family owned business. Ron Foster has been a central figure at the Livingston, California headquarters of Foster Farms, and during his tenure oversaw the rapid expansion of the company, seeing it grow 70 percent during those eleven years. The Foster Farms plant at Livingston alone has about 3500 employees and the two plants in Turlock employ another 1300 people. But in addition to these employees, Foster Farms boasts that it supports operations in seven states which employ 12,000 individuals in raising poultry/livestock.
But not everything has been golden during the last 11 years. Ron Foster, who is only 56 years old, also oversaw one of the most tumultuous periods in the company’s history, with an unusually lengthy 18-month outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg linked to consumption of Foster Farms brand chicken in 29 states and the Puerto Rico. Recent estimates have put the number of victims of the Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak at over 10,000, with more that 6 to 7 hundred laboratory confirmed cases according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and California State health agencies. The company has also faced accusations for the reckless use of antibiotics, which may have contributed to the anti-biotic resistant nature of a number of the strains of Salmonella Heidelberg that have sickened so many of its customers. And these troubles have impacted Foster Farms bottom line – according to some reports, Foster Farms saw a drop in sales revenue of 25% following national coverage that it was the source of this national Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak.
In spite of Foster Farms’ recent woes, Ron Foster did not attribute his exit to these troubles specifically. Rather, in a letter to company employees Ron Foster seemed to refer to them indirectly, stating: “I have greatly enjoyed the past 11 years as your CEO,” before adding “during this period, we have witnessed some of the most challenging and some of the most rewarding times in our company’s history. I am confident that Foster Farms is positioned to do great things.” Ron Foster might have also been referring to Foster Farms efforts to appear proactive in addressing these problems, including the ongoing use of antibiotics in production of its poultry and its claim to have spent nearly 75 million dollars in efforts related to the eradication of salmonella and other pathogens form its production sites and products.
The food poisoning lawyers at Ron Simon & Associates have been actively involved with the victims of the massive Salmonella Heidelberg for more than a year now, and are working to recover damages on behalf of these victims. Ron Simon, who has represented thousands of Salmonella victims, had this to say: “The departure of Ron Foster may or may not be related directly to the recent outbreak o Salmonella Heidelberg, but in either case, it is a chance for a new leader at Foster Farms to take significant corrective action to make sure that the products being placed in consumers hands are free of dangerous pathogens like Salmonella. The new leader will face a daunting task in working to recover the confidence of the American people, and especially the victims of this outbreak, in Foster Farms chicken.”
