IPFS News Link • Food Shortages
Who Is Burning Down America's Food Processing Plants?
• BY: DEVIN RAMEY, HEIDI WIGDAHLAccording to the Wright County Sheriff's Office, crews responded to the scene off Highway 12 around 10 p.m.
Sgt. Troy Wachter told KARE 11 the fire destroyed a poultry building with an estimated 200,000 chickens inside.
Forsman Farms spokesperson Jon Austin said they do not have a firm number yet but they're estimating at least tens of thousands of chickens were killed, up to a couple hundreds of thousands. Some chickens in adjacent buildings were also affected, mostly from smoke inhalation.
Eddie Olson was having a bonfire in his backyard, about six miles away in Cokato, when he started hearing sirens.
"I'm a SKYWARN spotter so I do a lot of radio communications and stuff and this is one of maybe 50 radios I have. I just grabbed one and heard that they were dispatching other departments. So I knew it was big," Olson said.
Olson filmed video at the scene of the fire.
"It's a lot of chickens. It's a hit to the egg market, it's people's jobs, it's a local community. So any time anything big like that happens, it's not good," Olson said.
A Wright County egg producer is evaluating the damage left behind from a Saturday night fire. A Forsman Farms spokesperson said they do not have a firm number yet but he estimates at least tens of thousands of chickens were killed. https://t.co/JPkqaQqO6Y @kare11 pic.twitter.com/51F8gE4oea
— Heidi Wigdahl (@HeidiWigdahl) May 30, 2022