The End of an Era for Sun Valley

Subtle changes are taking place at Hereford United where the logos of the main sponsors Sun Valley are slowly but surely being replaced by parent company Cargill. Sun Valley itself is to become part of Cargill Meats Europe.

Whilst Sun Valley is a name synonymous with Hereford United, as yet Cargill isn't.

In fact other than to those working in parts of the agricultural industry, Cargill is a name probably unknown to most Hereford United supporters.

The first noticable change inside the Edgar Street is that the Len Weston Stand, which has been known as the Floors-to-Go Stand for the past couple of seasons, has been rebranded the Cargill Stand.

So who are Cargill?

Cargill was started by W. W. Cargill who set-up a grain storage facility on the American frontier in 1865. The company has grown to become one of the largest, privately-owned businesses in the United States, providing food, agricultural and risk management products and services around the globe. It now has 158,000 employees in 66 countries.

Cargill has been active in the United Kingdom since 1955 and employs approximately 2,800 people in 16 locations: London, Cobham, Hereford, Hull, Liverpool (four locations), Manchester, Runcorn, York, Witham St Hughs, Wolverhampton and Worksop.

Like most big companies in the UK Cargill sometimes hits the headlines for the wrong reasons.

In April 2006, Cargill was criticised by Greenpeace for allegedly being involved with the deforestation of the Amazon. The report traced animal feed made from Amazonian soya to European food retailers who bought chicken and other meat raised on the feed. Greenpeace took its campaign to these major food retailers and quickly won agreement from McDonalds along with UK-retailers Asda, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer to stop buying meat raised on Amazonian soya. These retailers in turn put pressure on Cargill to prove their soya was not grown on recently deforested land in the Amazon.

Last January two so-called activists entered the Sun Valley plant in Hereford and walked past a security checkpoint using the side of a live chicken transport lorry as cover to investigate the conditions at the second biggest poultry slaughterhouse in the UK.

Whilst the aim of the activists was said to be to gather information an opportunity arose and a chicken was 'spontaneously rescued' by the activists.

The one activist managed to open a cage and capture a chicken with 4 security staff and a van chasing him on foot. The other stopped for a couple of seconds to lead the staff towards him and away from the activist with a 'rescued' chicken in his hands. The chicken and activist got away but one male was apprehended by security staff and arrested shortly after.

The rescued chicken was christened Rocky - named after the chicken in the 'Chicken Run' film.

More problems for Cargill earlier this year came when the Liverpool Echo reported that Cargill's supposed policy of only dealing with ethical companies had been called into question after its biggest UK Customer of Oils and Fats, KTC, was discovered to have had 34 illegal immigrants working for them and living in appalling conditions.

Then, not long after and close to Hereford, Sun Valley, the local Cargill company, was said to have an alledged Polish Mafia gang in its midst. The Sunday Mercury said the gang was terrorising the local chicken factory that supplies McDonald's. According to the paper three men were charged after one worker was abducted and others viciously beaten.

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