WASHINGTON- Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) recently sent another letter to Donnie King, chief executive officer of Tyson Foods, regarding new allegations about the details of processing plants the company sold in Dexter and Noel, Mo.

Hawley wrote to King after an Investigate Midwest article on allegations about how Tyson decided to sell its two Missouri operations to Cal-Maine and the negative impact it had on contract poultry growers in the area.

“You have previously stonewalled my efforts to learn the truth about your shutdown of poultry plants in Noel and Dexter, Mo.,” Hawley said. “Now, your company is apparently trying to deter injured farmers from speaking out against it.”  

The former poultry growers for the plants filed a class-action lawsuit against Tyson Foods and Cal-Maine in June 2024 about the deal.

Tyson Foods did not respond to requests for comments about Hawley’s letter or the recent article.  

Hawley noted that Tyson selling the plants to an egg producer instead of a poultry processing operation caused poultry producers in the area financial hardship by eliminating the primary source for their birds. 

“This left local farmers, who built their farms around broiler chicken production, in a bind,” Hawley said. “And it happened after you previously assured me, on Sept. 15, 2023, that you would not prevent a competitor from acquiring your closed plants. Importantly, the lawsuit alleged that you were always planning to sell the plant to a non-competitor, in defiance of commitments you made to me and Congressman Jason Smith. When I wrote to you about this issue earlier this year, you declined to produce evidence rebutting the lawsuit’s allegations—instead claiming it would ‘not be appropriate’ to make the relevant documents public.”

Another allegation from the Investigate Midwest report was that Tyson subpoenaed some of the poultry growers in the lawsuit for communications they had between federal investigators and journalists.

Hawley said the request was a “deterrent to First Amendment-protected speech.”

Cal-Maine completed the acquisition of the two plants in March 2024.

In 2023, Hawley proposed the Strengthening Antitrust Enforcement for Meatpacking Act after Tyson announced it would close those two facilities.