Neville Chandler, National Renderers Association (NRA) director for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, has resigned his position effective July 31, 2007.
“I shall be returning to Australia to live and enjoy life,” Chandler stated in his letter of resignation. “There is never a 100 percent NOW time to leave, but as best I can determine, now is the time for me.”
Chandler worked 17 years for NRA. He spent seven years in the London, England, office before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s. He then returned in 1997 to head up the London office for the past 10 years.
“Neville’s contributions to the rendering industry are many,” stated NRA President Tom Cook. “His presence in the European Union in the mid-1990s was invaluable during the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis. His participation on the North American Rendering BSE Taskforce helped us to get through a very trying time.”
Baker Salutes Congleton, Expands Cold Storage
Baker Commodities, Inc., recently honored George Congleton at a dinner celebrating his retirement from the Los Angeles, CA-based renderer. Congleton spent 43 years at Baker and was very active in the industry, including serving in various industry organizations.
Upon his graduation from the University of Southern California, Congleton was hired by Baker Commodities in 1964 to work in sales in the marketing department before being named to the position of vice president of marketing in 1976.
During his career, Congleton served as vice chairman of the International Market Development Committee for the National Renderers Association, was a member of the National Institute of Oil Seed Products Board of Directors, was a committee member for the California Grain and Feed Association, a member of the American Fats and Oils Association Rules Committee, and chairman of the Education Committee for the Pacific Coast Renderers Association.
Congleton and his wife, Pat, plan to split their time in retirement between Southern California and Northern Idaho.
In a separate announcement, Baker Cold Storage, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baker Commodities, Inc., opened its second refrigerated warehouse facility on 6.44 acres in Vernon, CA.
The facility, which began receiving product May 7, 2007, boasts 162,000 square feet of convertible freezer or cooler space, in excess of 20,000 pallet positions, and has about 38 percent more capacity than the current facility located on Bandini Boulevard in Vernon. That facility opened in early 2002 on five acres right next door to Baker’s Los Angeles rendering plant. The new cold storage is located on Sierra Pine Avenue, about 1.3 miles from the rendering plant.
BASF Discontinues Lysine Business
BASF is discontinuing its lysine business and will shut down its production facility in Gunsan, South Korea, by mid-2007 to concentrate on its non-amino acids business. Lysine is the only amino acid in BASF’s nutrition portfolio.
Over the last three years, BASF undertook an intensive cost reduction program at the Gunsan site. However, due to rising raw material costs, overcapacities, and a high dependency on exports, the business is no longer sustainable. The Gunsan site has a current capacity for lysine of approximately 100,000 metric tons per year and employs about 180 people.
BASF is committed to South Korea, having started its business in the country in 1954. About 1,200 employees currently work at the company’s operations in South Korea.
The closure is part of the ongoing restructuring program of BASF’s fine chemicals business, initiated in January 2006. Among other measures, this program includes the merging of the human nutrition and animal nutrition businesses into one nutrition unit as of November 2006 and the divestment of the global premix business. In February 2007, BASF sold a major part of its premix business to Nutreco, a Dutch company.
BSE Lab to Remain Open Through September
It is being reported that the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) testing laboratory at Washington State University’s (WSU’s) College of Veterinary Medicine in Pullman, WA, will remain open for at least another six months. It was reported in the “People, Places, &” column in the April 2007 issue of Render that the lab had closed March 1, 2007.
As part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) push to scale back BSE monitoring, the agency’s contract with WSU expired March 1. University officials are now saying that USDA has extended the contract through September 30, 2007, with the possibility of further extensions.
“The testing we’re doing is part of USDA’s routine surveillance,” Terry McElwain, executive director of WSU’s Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, told Meatingplace.com. “There is no increased concern or suspicion for BSE in the United States.”
The WSU lab has processed more than 46,000 samples from slaughterhouses in five Northwest states since it opened following the discovery of BSE in the Yakima Valley in December 2003.
China Establishes Soybean Association
The China Soybean Industry Association officially launched in Beijing in late March. Wan Baorui, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, was elected president of the association, which is comprised of soybean farmers, processors, and traders, as well as scientific researchers throughout China.
The association is expected to conduct a series of initiatives in order to improve the competitiveness of China’s soybean industry and to protect local players from the growing amount of genetically modified imports.
China is the world’s biggest consumer of soybeans. In 2006, the country imported 28.27 million tons of the product, while its domestic production was 15.5 million tons.
Franco Publishes New Book
Dr. Don Franco, former vice president, Scientific Services, National Renderers Association, and former president, Animal Protein Producers Industry, has just written and released a new book titled, Poverty ~ Malnutrition ~ Disease ~ Hopelessness: A Cry for Social Justice. It was published by Sierra Publishing, the same publisher of Render.
The book contributes to the global debate of the last few years to address the complexities and address new goals with relation to world poverty and health. Chapters focus on sanitation and hygiene, waterborne and foodborne diseases, new dimensions of chronic diseases, and the role of private foundations/organizations.
Franco has degrees in agriculture, veterinary medicine, and public health, and spent the greater part of his career with the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After his retirement from government, he served the rendering industry for over 10 years, and then founded the Center for Bio-security, Food Safety, and Public Health in Lake Worth, FL, in 2003. All proceeds from the book will be donated.
For more information on the book, contact Franco at (561) 968-1575, or e-mail dfranco99@aol.com.
Lawsuit Filed Against Renderer
New Jersey Attorney General Stuart Rabner filed a state lawsuit May 10, 2007, charging an Essex County rendering plant with being a persistent polluter, and seeking a court order requiring that the plant immediately correct long-standing violations of environmental law.
The lawsuit, filed with the New Jersey Superior Court in Essex County, names as defendants the American Rendering Corporation, Berkowitz Fat Company, Harry Berkowitz Industries, Inc., and plant owner Seymour Berkowitz individually. According to the lawsuit, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has conducted numerous inspections at the plant since 2005 and, as a result, has assessed more than $2 million in pollution-related civil penalties against the defendants.
“We have gone to court because, despite the assessment of more than $2 million in civil penalties and recent revocation by the state of its air quality permits, this facility continues to conduct business as usual,” said Rabner.
Violations found during DEP inspection – and not yet corrected, according to the state – include the rendering of meat in cookers with air pollution control equipment that is disconnected or inoperable, use of grease rather than fuel oil in the facility’s boiler, failure to record and submit required air pollution emissions records, and failure to report a fire.
In addition, the state has cited the plant as a source of water pollution via run-off and direct discharge containing such contaminants as fat and grease, blood, diesel fuel, and used engine oil. The state has also cited the plant for its continuing outdoor storage of uncovered meat waste.
The complaint also charged that Seymour Berkowitz refused to admit DEP inspectors to the plant on January 29, 2007, and failed to take corrective action that he promised the DEP would be undertaken. Specifically, Berkowitz furnished DEP in February 2007 with a list of 13 immediate and on-going remedial actions he intended to take but, during a DEP inspection at the plant on May 1, inspectors saw no evidence of any attempt to correct the violations.
In addition to the potential environmental damage caused by its continuing operations, the state contends the rendering plant poses a significant public nuisance since it often emits overpowering odors within a quarter-mile of many businesses and private residences.
According to Berkowitz, the batch plant, which is located on a few acres in a Newark, NJ, rail yard, suffered a fire in September that extensively destroyed the roof and electrical system, causing the delay of on-going improvements to the equipment. The renderer is working to correct the problems cited and clean-up the property. Berkowitz said the state has demanded immediate action upon discovering the violations and does not understand it takes time to repair or replace equipment.
The plant has been in operation since 1970 and mainly processes meat waste from local supermarkets. The facility also collects and processes used cooking oil.
Moyer Fined for Air Quality Violations
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has assessed a $61,000 civil penalty against Moyer Packing Company, a division of Smithfield Foods, for air quality violations noted at the company’s Franconia Township, Montgomery County, rendering plant.
“We found the company had not been properly inspecting or maintaining control devices on several air pollution sources, resulting in more than a dozen violations,” said Environmental Protection Regional Director Joseph Feola. “Our inspectors also found the company operating a unit under an expired approval.”
Violations discovered during the June 7, 2006, inspection include failing to maintain air pollution control devices associated with several scrubbers and boilers, and failing to monitor and record required information such as water flow rates, pressure, temperature, and pH on certain units. The company failed to perform annual maintenance of key equipment and was found to be operating under a plan approval that expired on September 25, 2005.
The company has since acquired a current plan approval for those sources, which was made part of Moyer’s facility-wide permit in November 2006.
Tyson to Sell Poultry Plants
As part of strategic efforts to reduce the production of fresh, commodity chicken, Tyson Foods, Inc., is selling two of its Alabama poultry plants and some supporting facilities.
Tyson signed a letter of intent in late March to sell it poultry plants in Ashland and Gadsden to Koch Foods, Inc., of Park Ridge, IL. The sale will include a feed mill in Talladega and hatcheries in Fair Knoll and Empire. The companies hoped to complete the deal by the end of May.
Tyson began reassessing the future of these Alabama operations last year after fire destroyed the company’s poultry processing plant in Heflin. This led to a discussion with Koch, which has been a long-time, primary customer of the Heflin and Ashland plants, and more recently, the Gadsden facility, which has not been operating at full capacity due to production cuts Tyson initiated in 2006. The Gadsden and Ashland complexes have been part of Tyson Foods for more than 20 years.
Approximately 1,200 Tyson team members are employed at the locations involved in the sale and many are expected to be given opportunities to work for Koch Foods. However, 400 of the 675 positions at the Gadsden plant will be eliminated by late May as Tyson shifts the facility’s further processing activities to other company locations. These workers will be encouraged to consider employment at other Tyson locations in Alabama. Following the transaction, Tyson will employ approximately 2,400 team members in Alabama.
As part of the transaction, Koch Foods will assume production contracts with approximately 350 growers who currently raise chickens for Tyson.
June 2007 Render