Charles Baum, the Polish-born Holocaust survivor who founded Petaluma Poultry has died of congestive heart failure in Sebastopol, California. He was 91.
Baum and his wife immigrated to California in 1947, where he bought a 10-acre farm in Sebastopol in 1950. He began raising chickens and transporting them to San Francisco and San Pablo. He eventually expanded the business to include a feed mill, hatchery, and processing plant. Named Petaluma Poultry Processors, the company remains in business today and is owned by Coleman Natural Foods. Baum sold the business in the early 1990s.
