DeCoster fined for violations in Kent County

By BRUCE HOTCHKISS
Senior Editor

Austin “Jack” DeCoster’s involvement in the poultry industry began about 60 years ago when he was a teenager on the family farm in Turner, Maine.
His problems in the poultry industry began in the 1980s in Kent County, Md.
The man in the focus of a federal investigation of a virtually nationwide outbreak of salmonella, who has been characterized as “The Egg King,” DeCoster is the owner of an egg producing empire which, as of press time, has issued a recall of 380 million eggs marketed to stores and outlets from coast to coast.
The salmonella outbreak has been linked to hundreds of illnesses but, as of the most recent reports, no deaths.
He came to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1980, where he establishing an egg laying operation in Massey.
Those who visited the facility said there were “six to eight large houses” on the property containing close to a million layers in cages.
The cages were suspended about eight feet above the ground and waste from the birds fell through the bottom of the cages to the ground.
Being discreet, one visitor to the operation said DeCoster “did a less than adequate job” in cleaning up under the cages.
“He didn’t clean up on a routine basis,” the visitor said, “and, of course, there was a tremendous fly problem.”
Another Kent County official recalled that at one point DeCoster lost “a lot of birds.”
Instead of disposing of them in the accepted manner at that time, DeCoster cut a furrow in one of his farm fields and attempted to bury them in it.
“He was called on it,” the official said.
DeCoster apparently began to feel the heat.
Concern was being aired about the health of the Chesapeake Bay, and the concept of nutrient management was on the table.
In 1992 a criminal complaint against DeCoster’s operation in Massey alleged that it had sold eggs to a store in Cecilton and to the Cecil County Detention Center in violation of a salmonella quarantine order.
DeCoster apparently decided, according to those familiar with the operation, that Maryland was not the place for him.
He reportedly sold the property to Red Bird Egg Farms and departed for Iowa, at first thinking swine but reverting to poultry.
Efforts to reach officials of Red Bird’s headquarters last week in Sassafras, Kent County, were unsuccessful.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently investigating feed that may have been shared between two Iowa companies, both associated with DeCoster in the egg business, Wright County Eggs and Hillandale Farms, and both involved in the recall.
DeCoster also has large animal confinement operations in Iowa, Maine and Ohio.
He has a long history of being charged with violations.
Over the past 20 years DeCoster has received multiple citations and has paid huge fines for health, safety and employment violations.
DeCoster claims to be a born-again Christian.
Reportedly, he once fired a supervisor for being an atheist.
While in Maryland, he attended the Chestertown Baptist Church where a fellow churchgoer said he was arrogant and “always wanted to be the center of attention.”
One Sunday, while his Massey operation was under investigation, he was approached by a newsman after church for comment.
“Are you a born again Christian?” he asked the newsman.
“No, I am not,” the newsman replied.
“When you are,” DeCoster snapped back, “I will talk to you.”