Wine growers in California wonder where their market went. The country’s largest egg producer wants even more cage-free facilities. And an Iowa man got sentenced to prison for cheating investors and threatening workers.
Wine Woes
Three decades of growth. But now some of California’s grape wine market has collapsed. Consumers are choosing other options or skipping alcohol completely. Growers are left with too many grapes and a limited market to buy them.
RELATED: American Farmland Owner profiled Carl Evers III, AgIS Capital Director of Sustainability and President of California operations, on the challenges facing the state’s winegrowers. Watch or listen to that here.
Beverage Dynamics summed up the wine industry’s problems like this: “The unfortunate truth is that younger people, for the most part, are not interested in wine, and the industry has not done enough to entice them into becoming regular consumers. By some industry projections, sales of American wine could fall by about twenty percent in the next decade. It’s clear that something must be done to reach younger drinkers.”
“California Insider” with Siyamek Khorrami examined what is happening with the state’s wine industry and what has changed. Watch that episode here.
Cage-Free Egg Expansion
The largest egg producer in the United States plans to spend $40 million to expand its cage-free egg operations. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said that the plan will include five additional cage-free layer houses in Florida, Georgia, Utah, and Texas.
Expansion is expected to begin before the end of 2024, according to the company’s announcement release. Cal-Maine said that the added production will mean the potential for approximately 1 million cage-free layer hens by next summer.
Cal-Maine also announced that its conversion of a former Tyson Foods plant in Dexter, Missouri, is underway. The company said that it has commitment with local growers that could bring an additional 1.2 million free-range hens by next fall.
“We are pleased to announce these new expansion projects, which support our strategy to increase our free-range production in line with customer demand and expanding state requirements for cage-free eggs. The additional capacity will further enhance our ability to serve our growing customer base,” said Sherman Miller, president and chief executive officer of Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., in the news release.
RELEASE: Here is the announcement from Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. about its $40 million cage-free egg expansion.
Cattle Thief
An Iowa man lied to investors and mistreated foreign laborers at his livestock operation, according to federal authorities. It was a complicated scheme of deceit and cruelty that earned Michael Butikofer a 15-year prison sentence and an order to pay $5.7 million in restitution.
Butikofer, 54, of Monona, defrauded eight investors, federal officials said. Butifkofer sold the $2.5 million worth of cattle as his own, not his investors.
Part of his scheme involved defrauding the USDA of about $1.2 million in COVID-19 pandemic aid after falsely claiming that the cattle was his.
But his mistreatment of three South African laborers may have been his most heinous crime. Butikofer, according to the investigation, threatened to physically harm the laborers to work more, put a shock collar on one to speed up his work, and warned of pushing a worker into an auger.
RELATED: The Des Moines Register lays out the investigation into Michael Butikofer’s string of crimes. Read that here.
