By DAVID COKER

Special to the Courier & Press

Tuesday, July 7, 1998

On July 9, the public will have perhaps one of the last opportunities to speak out about the ConAgra plant planned for the rural Posey County farmland near the historic town of West Franklin, Ind.

The plant will release some 937 tons of normal Hexane, a chemical used in the oil- extracting process, each year. This plant will be less than two miles from the Vanderburgh County line at the West Franklin site.

During the past few months officials at Con Agra have sponsored fund raising events and provided generous financial support to various charities and civic groups in Posey and Vanderburgh County. This has meant sizable financial contribution for such groups as the Posey County Community Foundation, a $2,000 donation to the Rehabilitation Center in Mt. Vernon and co-sponsorship of the Evansville Freedom Festival.

While these donations are laudable and probably badly needed, they are no doubt designed to polish the corporate image of this industrial Leviathan locally. But if we are to believe observers of Wall Street concerned about corporate responsibility, the company may have things its not telling local, state and federal officials, local bankers and other interested citizens.

The Council on Economic Priorities, a Manhattan-based group dedicated to educating corporate investors concerned about environmental and workplace issues, has been monitoring the company's performance for several years and does not much like what it sees. Recently, the foundation published a book entitled "The Corporate Report Card -- Rating 250 of America's Corporations for the Socially Responsible Investor." In it the group paints a rather unglamorous picture of the $24 billion corporate giant.

The CEP reports that "As one of the largest farming and livestock companies, much of Con Agra's environmental impact stems from pesticides and land use issues. Con Agra's TRI (Toxic Release Inventory) releases were the highest in the food industry and almost 10 times worse than the industry average. The company released 5.4 million pounds in 1994, and increase of 20 per cent from 1993.

Con Agra's hazardous waste generation and accidental spill record were also worse than the industry average." Furthermore, the company in its acquisition of the Beatrice Corporation in 1990 inherited numerous cases of litigation and environmental proceedings. The report states that because of environmental violation "Beatrice is presently named (by EPA) as a potentially responsible party at 42 Superfund sites across the country."

While the group acknowledges that Con Agra's charitable contributions to worthy causes totaled $8 million in cash in 1996 (approximately 2 per cent of total pre-tax earnings) the report goes on to grade the company with an F for the many workplace issues where the company was fined for numerous worker safety and health violations.

The CEP report continues "the records of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration indicate that Con Agra underwent 26 health and safety inspections from 1994 to 1996. The violations reported by OSHA as a result of the inspections include nine classified as 'willful' or 'repeat' and 114 classified as 'serious.' The company was forced to pay $234,575 as a result of violations or an average of $10,176 per inspection. In comparison, the median amount of fines per inspection for other companies in the food, beverage, and household products industries was $1,515."

In addition to the environmental and workforce violations of the company, they also seem not to be too concerned about the livelihood of workers. The report concludes that "Con Agra closed 9 plants and businesses in 22 states in 1996, resulting in the loss of 6,300 jobs or seven per cent of the company's work force." Stating that a major restructuring was responsible for the layoffs to improve the company's efficiency, "the company claims that 5,346 jobs were added the following year."

With local elected officials and chamber of commerce types rolling out the red carpet for this new corporate citizen in our midst, one wonders if the paltry guarantee of some 200 jobs at the plant are worth all of the environmental impacts of the region as well as the specific concerns of residents in the West Franklin area.

It is virtually impossible to consider the industrial impact of a facility of this nature without discussing the serious environmental constraints it will place upon other potential economic development prospects of this entire region long into the future. Concerned citizens should attend this important meeting and let their voices be heard.

(Editorial note: After several months of deliberations and intense pressure exerted by local environmentalists, Con Agra decided against building the proposed soybean oil processing facility.)