TURNER, Maine - A farm executive who pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in front of a congressional committee investigating the salmonella outbreak is the same person who signed a new lease on Maine's largest egg farm.
The Sun Journalreports that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is considering a request from a Land o'Lakes subsidiary to transfer active permits to Hillandale Farms, the farm family involved with Jack DeCoster in an Iowa salmonella outbreak that sickened 1,900 people in 2010.
Hillandale signed a lease to operate the farms on July 8. But the newspaper reported that properties continue to be owned by DeCoster's corporate entities.
Only the Turner operation with 2 million egg-laying hens is currently in operation. Hillandale will notify the DEP if restarts operations in Leeds and Winthrop.