Food systems program manager Claire Kelloway discusses a class action lawsuit filed against poultry corporations by local farmers.

Michael and Jean-Nichole Diaz wanted a farm business to pass down to their four sons. They ended up losing their life savings to get out of a dead-end chicken-growing contract. Now they’re hoping other contract poultry farmers will join their class action lawsuit, filed Monday, against one of the poultry corporations they worked with, Amick Farms.

Mr. and Mrs. Diaz allege that they were promised independence, but practically and legally were underpaid, unprotected chicken company employees, with little control over their operations and $1.5 million in debt on the line.

“It wasn’t very long before we realized that this is not a business model that’s going to be proven by the fruit of our efforts,” says Michael Diaz. “It took our whole savings, and it took every dollar and cent that we brought in outside … [Amick Farms] had this day-to-day control over our farm, there was nothing that we could do to do anything different.”

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