The Rise And Fall of A Peanut Empire

Stewart Parnell, center, president of Peanut Corporation of America, leaves a House hearing at which he said only: "Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. Constitution." (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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Even as PCA was rapidly expanding, a former buyer for a major snack manufacturer said the Parnells found success by operating a low-cost business that relied on the cheapest peanuts they could find. They used minimum wage labor and a bare-bones front office.

"The old man used to look for distressed situations: Someone over-inventoried or had peanuts from last year that they had to move," said David Brooks, who was a buyer for a snack company that refused to purchase from Parnell because of concerns about sanitation and what he called the "culture" of the family business. "He would aggressively look for these, making phone calls, hunting people down. Stewart grew up in that and was the same way."

On three occasions in the mid-1980s, Brooks inspected PCA's Gorman plant to determine whether to buy its peanut products, he said. Each time, he gave the plant a failing grade.

"It was just filthy," said Brooks, who has since retired from the food business. "Dust was all over the beams, the braces of the building. The roofs leaked, the windows would be open, and birds would fly through the building. . . . It was just a time bomb waiting to go off, and everybody in the peanut industry in Georgia, Virginia and Texas -- they all knew."

Victoria Brown, 32, said she worked in PCA's Blakely plant for three months before she was fired two years ago for coming to work late. She earned $6.25 an hour sorting peanuts and picking out rocks, sticks and other debris before washing them. The plant was stiflingly hot, she said, and the roof leaked. "Water would come in when it rained," Brown said.

Water creates conditions for salmonella growth in peanut plants. After federal officials traced the salmonella illness outbreak to the Blakely plant last month, inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration descended and catalogued sanitation problems including a leaky roof, water stains and mold on the walls.

In Texas, state inspectors shut down the Plainview plant Thursday night after finding dead rodents and excrement near the air exchange that ventilated the production room. Internal laboratory tests found salmonella in samples of peanut products taken from that plant last week. Texas officials have ordered a recall of every product made there since Parnell opened it in 2005.

Federal and Texas officials did not even know PCA's Plainview facility existed until after they started investigating the Blakely plant. It was unlicensed and had been uninspected by the government for four years.

If the company was undetected in Plainview, it had a minimal presence in Lynchburg. Parnell ran PCA from a converted garage behind his home in a wooded, upscale suburb. Earlier this week, kayaks and a covered powerboat sat in the driveway next to the two-story building. A sun-faded banner with a picture of a squirrel hangs nearby from Parnell's house reading "Welcome to the Nut House."

Parnell's company kept such a low profile that Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce President Rex Hammond said he had never heard of PCA before the outbreak of salmonella illness. Hammond, who has held his post for 11 years, said chamber records showed the company's membership lapsed in 1991.

"Stewart was never even on the radar screen," said Bert Dodson, Lynchburg's vice mayor, who played high school football with Stewart Parnell. Dodson, chief executive of Dodson Bros. Exterminating, said Parnell kept to himself and "always had a worried look on his face" whenever Dodson would see him around town.

Parnell's younger sister, Beth, is married to Jimmy Falwell, a cousin of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who manages Falwell Aviation, a charter company. She, along with her brother Mike, and their father, Hugh, declined to be interviewed.