WinStar Farm executives consider themselves horse traders who adhere to a creed, articulated by the group's president, Steve Cauthen: "Everybody is going to be sold, it is just a matter of when".
The latest contributions came from 124 different corporations based in 33 states--demonstrating that factory farm executives will dig deep into their pockets just to make sure they don't have to give animals enough space to turn around, lie down, and stretch their limbs.
Case Farms executives had to have known that many of their employees were unauthorized.
He plans to return to the state Friday to meet with farming executives in Fresno and hold rallies there and in San Diego.
"Every single thing on the dinner plate comes from the farm," says executive chef Marcelo Najarro.
Backyard Farms' chief executive, Roy Lubetkin, when pressed, pointed to biological controls like the wasps that allow the company to grow tomatoes without pesticides, and to the four-acre reservoir of reclaimed rain runoff that supplies, almost exclusively, their irrigation water.
"Our company is committed to responsible growing practices that help preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics for human health and medicine," Foster Farms Chief Executive and President Ron Foster said.
While lower-level managers throughout America have long been relegated to cubicle farms, senior executives have clung to big corner offices as a perk and status symbol.
"Can land go up and down?" asked John Taylor, national farm and ranch executive for U.S. Trust, which manages 900 farms for investors.
"It's not operated as a farm," said Ian Marvy, executive director of Brooklyn's Added Value farm, which shares many of Growing Power's core values but produces less food.
"It's proper reality TV," says This Farming Life's executive producer, Lisa Ausden.
