Everett,
Wash.
In the summer of 1995, ConAgra abruptly canceled poultry producing
contracts with over 178 independent contract growers in the southern United
States. In offering new and what one producer described as "abusive"
contracts, ConAgra demanded binding arbitration be included.
A typical poultry contract is a unilateral contract, often referred to as
a contract of adhesion. An adhesion contract is simply a "take it or
leave it" contract. Frequently a farmer who has borrowed one-third
to a half million dollars in order to secure a business contract with a
processor like ConAgra has no option other than to sign, even if it means
giving up his or her constitutional right to access their state and federal
courts should anything go amiss in terms of fraud or dispute.
Some 53 families, at the risk of losing their farms and their homes, refused
to accept such terms, saying it was clearly a violation of their freedom
of speech. ConAgra's cancellation of contracts, many of the producers believed,
came in retaliation for an earlier court suit brought on behalf of some
300 poultry growers in the region where a federal court jury awarded the
producers some $17 million after they presented evidence of being cheated
by ConAgra on the weight of their birds.