May 24, 2013
PORTALES, N.M. (AP) -- A peanut butter plant along the New Mexico-Texas border has laid off a third of its 150 workers after federal authorities shuttered the plant.
A salmonella outbreak traced to the peanut butter has sickened 41 people in 20 states.
Millions of pounds of the regions prized sweet Valencia peanuts sit in barns at the Sunland peanut butter plant.
Farmers are worried about getting paid. And residents wonder what toll the shutdown will have on the region's economy.
The tension boiled over on Monday, when the Food and Drug Administration suspended Sunland's registration to operate because of repeated safety violations.
It came just as the plant was set to resume shelling the bumper crop.
