Demand That Grendys Transition Koch Foods to a Slaughter-free, Plant-based Food Company

Chicken in factory farm

Joseph Grendys, Chairman, CEO and President of Koch Foods, has made his enormous fortune on the slaughter of chickens. He ranks #389 on Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth of $3.3 billion. Koch slaughters more than 12 million chickens per week and contracts with up to 5,000 chicken farmers at any given time, making Koch the fifth largest chicken meat producer in the U.S. with an estimated $3.9 billion in annual revenue. Since 1992 Grendys has been consolidating his power by buying up feed mills and slaughterhouses. “Grendys has spent years pulling in sky-high profits, and even during the worst inflation in 40 years, Koch Foods is able to report record sales volumes weekly," reports Chloe Sorvino for Forbes in June, 2022.

Koch has a substantial history of violations and legal controversies for animal welfare, employment, public health and safety, financial and environmental offenses that resulted in millions of dollars in fines, according to Violationtracker. In 2018, Koch Foods settled a class employment discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to the tune of almost $4 million. The EEOC charged the company with sexual harassment, national origin and race discrimination as well as retaliation against a class of Hispanic workers at Koch's Morton, Miss., chicken processing plant. A 2014 MFA investigation exposed chicks at a Koch facility being violently slammed into transport crates and having their legs and wings broken before being electrocuted and then scalded alive.


The time to act is now! There is a perfect storm brewing which makes the timing for this campaign critical. Bird flu continues to spiral out of control in the commercial chicken, turkey and egg industries, resulting in 38 million birds (and counting) being brutally killed using Ventilation Shutdown. Inflation and the war in Ukraine are causing feed and fuel prices to spike, causing major food industry disruptions. Animal agriculture is finally becoming more recognized as a major contributor to the climate crisis. All the while, Grendys is now thinking of expanding his empire.

This will be the first in a series of actions we will ask our supporters to take in this long-term and multi-faceted campaign.

Help us deliver our ultimate demand that Grendys transition Koch Foods to a slaughter-free, plant-based food company as the only ethical and sustainable path forward.