Your supermarket is a cornucopia, overflowing with fresh fruits and vegetables from around the world, no matter the season; counters full of meats, poultry, and fish; aisles stacked high with boxes and bags, cans and cartons of every kind of cereal, drink, dessert, and snack a body could want. Cornucopia, indeed. The typical American grocery store is stocked with 50,000 items, more than triple what it was 30 years ago. In 2010 alone, more than 15,000 new foods Read More …
The Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace met in early December at a plenary session in Rome. There, it issued a statement with the modest title: “A Note on Financial Reform.” That modest title masks a dramatic analysis of the global financial system. Elementary goods like food, the statement asserts, are lacking to millions in the developed world and to billions in the developing world. The condition of extreme hunger in the world is not simply the result of Read More …
In early 2008 the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released a video showing workers at a California slaughterhouse using electric prods on cattle unable to stand on their own (called downers) and ramming them with forklifts to make them stand for inspection. (Federal law requires that animals be able to walk into the slaughterhouse, and downed cattle are banned from human consumption because inability to stand may be a symptom what is commonly called mad cow Read More …
by David Andrews In 2008 the Federal Farm Bill instructed the Department of Agriculture to write rules for competition in the meat industry. This directive was to complete the details lacking in the 80-plus-year-old legislation on competition in the meat industry from the Theodore Roosevelt era. That legislation was to be enhanced with detailed directions on contracts, anti-trust policies and mandates requiring greater justice in meat production, processing and distribution. The rules were to be developed by a Read More …
by Eric Nelson For grain and livestock producers without some kind of marketing agreement with a packer or end user, the CME Group in Chicago offers alternatives for producers to hedge their production, without signing marketing agreements that give the power of supply control to the packer or end user. These agreements work as a relief valve in times of market supply shortages and allow end users to call in “contract commodities”, versus having to bid in the Read More …
“The following was authored by C. Robert Taylor, Alfa Eminent Scholar and Professor of Agricultural Economics at Auburn University and OCM Senior Economic Fellow and published in the Daily Yonder.” (all charts, graphs and illustrations can be found in the Newsletter archives, October 2010 edition) The world’s agriculture depends on a mineral that is declining in production and is controlled by a cartel of companies. Troubling, ain’t it? Modern farming methods depend increasingly on fossil fuels and major Read More …
ocmfertilizertalk2010 At OCM’s annual meeting in August 2010, C. Robert Taylor of Auburn University addressed the audience concerning Fertilizer cartels, and the potential market power and sustainability issues such organizations could create. Download Taylor’s presentation above.
restoringbeefmarkets C. Robert Taylor and David A. Domina Law have released a paper addressing how to restore economic health to the beef market. The paper addresses market power in the food industry, the status of the U.S. Beef Market for slaughter in 2010, the status of contract swine production in 2010, a detailed description on the flaws of the beef market and solutions to fix the problems.