Category: Antitrust

The New Meat Monopoly: How Consolidation Affects the ANIMAL

Mike Callicrate

A generation ago, the business of raising animals for food in America looked much like it had at the Founding – family farms, open and competitive markets, high standards, and a self sustaining national economy. Today, vast corporations rule almost every corner of the animal agriculture landscape, and these giants are increasingly controlled from foreign capitals. Some economists argue in favor of this new order of things, mainly claiming it is more “efficient.” But there’s also growing evidence Read More …

SURVEY: Beef producers: do you support the $1 checkoff program?

Mike Callicrate

By Peggy Lowe | Mar. 18, 2014 Cattle business from the producers’ eyes Allen and Lynda Berry own a cow-calf operation in central Missouri. (Peggy Lowe/Harvest Public Media) The beginning for most cows starts on a family farm where cow-calf operators raise cattle the old-school way. But some worry that the industry is moving towards consolidation, like the hog and poultry industries. Click here to read about what life is like as a cow-calf operator. We’ve all heard Read More …

Book Hour: The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business

Mike Callicrate

Family farms and ranches are disappearing at rate of over 10,000 per year. Those who survive are being squeezed by the four powerful multi-national agri-business corporations that control 85% of the meat markets. Their control is eliminating fair markets for food, crushing rural economies, leading to record prices and profits, and creating ungodly conditions for animals with additives, steroids, antibiotics, and genetic engineering that distorts animal physiology. The power of the meat industry and their lobbyists neuter politicians, Read More …

No legislative riders to limit or restrict the Secretary’s rulemaking and enforcement authority under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921

Mike Callicrate

Testimony Submitted by Bill Bullard CEO, R-CALF USA to the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee March 20, 2014 Contact Name and Email: Bill Bullard, billbullard@r-calfusa.com AGENCY: USDA-Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Request: No legislative riders to limit or restrict the Secretary’s rulemaking and enforcement authority under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 On behalf of the members of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), I am submitting this testimony to urge Read More …

The New Meat Monopoly: The Animal, The Farmer, and You in the New Age of Global Giants

Mike Callicrate

A generation ago, the business of raising animals for food in America looked much like it had at the Founding – family farms, open and competitive markets, high standards, and a self sustaining national economy. Today, vast corporations rule almost every corner of the animal agriculture landscape, and these giants are increasingly controlled from foreign capitals. Some economists argue in favor of this new order of things, mainly claiming it is more “efficient.” But there’s also growing evidence Read More …

The Other Shoe Drops

Fred Stokes

The second “final” report on the USDA OIG Audit of the Beef Checkoff was released the end of January. An earlier seventeen page report was released in March of 2013 but was shortly withdrawn for “additional audit work” under withering charges of whitewash and cover-up. It was generally accepted that the audit was prompted by the disturbing findings in an Audit in 2010, ordered by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB). You may recall that the CBB ordered audit Read More …

Important anniversary coincides with compelling new book

Mike Callicrate

By Mike Callicrate | February 20, 2014 This week I’m taking a moment to observe the 10-year anniversary of the most important court case in the history of the U.S. cattle industry, while turning the last page on a powerful new book that tells in precise and riveting detail the sad story of why the lawsuit was so critically needed. Christopher Leonard’s new book, The Meat Racket – The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business, which hits book Read More …

UNDER SIEGE: THE U.S. LIVE CATTLE INDUSTRY

Mike Callicrate

Under Siege: The U.S. Live Cattle Industry ACADEMIC JOURNAL ARTICLE By Bullard, Bill South Dakota Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 3 EXCERPT: Although the largest U.S. agricultural sector—the live cattle industry—is still comprised of hundreds of thousands of independent producers, it is currently on a trajectory to become a vertically integrated supply chain controlled by just a handful of dominant meatpackers. This is the fate already suffered by the nation’s hog and poultry industries within which once competitive Read More …