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 An earlier seventeen page report was released in March of 2013 but was shortly withdrawn for “additional audit work” under withering charges of whitewash and cover-up.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 …
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 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 …
Remember that kid on the playground, not the bully, but his smaller, weaker spokesman; that big-mouth side-kick that did most of the talking? Well some of these little rascals grow up, but never shut up. Some get paid for their lip bumping; others just talk because they love to hear the sound of their voice. Either way, they talk and talk and talk because they’re afraid to walk the walk. Steve Dittmer is one of those talkers. He has Read More …
As Big Food’s tentacles wind tighter around markets and governments, OCM fights on From seed to plate, a handful of global corporations have combined their power to extract unprecedented amounts of resources and wealth. Even Upton Sinclair* couldn’t have predicted that today our nation’s four largest meat packers would control over 85% of the market. Surely even he would be surprised to find the biggest companies in all three major meat categories— beef, pork, and poultry—now foreign owned! Read More …
January 7, 2014 Mo. Soybean Assn. leadership shakeup ousts exec. director David A. Lieb | Parsons, Kansas Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two longtime leaders of the Missouri Soybean Association are out of their jobs as part of an organizational shakeup following an audit of how the prominent agricultural group managed millions of dollars of merchandising fees paid by farmers. Board members of the soybean organization declined to release the audit and, in interviews with The Read More …
(00:00) Independent and natural family ranchers are forced to pay for their own demise through a government “tax” transferred to multi-national meat processors. Resistance is futile? The beef checkoff program forces small ranchers to pay into a fund that enables multi-national beef processors to divert other money into lobbying that destroys independent ranchers. It is as if you had to pay a portion of your pay so management can eliminate your job. It’s unfair and Congress sustains it Read More …
Independent ranchers and animal rights activists don’t agree about much, except that it’s time to stop using federal tax dollars to support the meat lobby. By Siddhartha Mahanta | New America Foundation Imagine if the federal government mandated that a portion of all federal gas taxes go directly to the oil industry’s trade association, the American Petroleum Institute. Imagine further that API used this public money to finance ad campaigns encouraging people to drive more and turn up Read More …