By Richard Oswald After nearly 66 years of life on earth, watching my grandmother, mother, and wife, with a frying pan skillet, suddenly I learned one day I had not a clue how to make good gravy. And so I struggled. Then, in a single chicken-fried-steak moment, it all came home to me. Half the secret to good gravy is milk. I’m talking about white gravy, salty flour and grease gravy, the kind you eat on biscuits or Read More …
Category: Corporate Power
America Returns to the Jungle
A safe and secure food supply is essential to a free society The United States was always able to feed itself. Except for a few non-essentials like coffee, tea and bananas, we were self-sufficient. The British government, along with their corporate partner, the East India Company, saw unlimited potential to extract wealth through the American colonies. Our Founding Fathers, willing to fight for our freedom and sovereignty, risked their lives and the lives of many citizens, to save Read More …
The Beef Checkoff: A Broken and Failed Program
Organization for Competitive Markets In the early 80’s, after several years of losing market share to other meats, especially chicken,U.S. beef cattle producers initiated a Beef Checkoff Program (Checkoff Program) to promote beef. The program came into being on the third referendum and was included in the Farm Bill in 1985 as the Beef Promotion and Research Act of 1985. In 1996, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) became the prime contractor of the Checkoff Program, receiving the Read More …
Meat of the Matter: Bigger is not better
Article By Dan Murphy November 17, 2015 Here’s a trend producers know all too well: Corporate consolidation goes forward in the name of “efficiency,” and the end result is bad news for everyone other than management and investors. Newsflash: The Kraft Heinz Co. just announced that the company is eliminating 2,600 jobs and closing seven processing plants. That’s on top of the previously announced elimination of 2,500 administrative jobs. According to a statement by Michael Mullen, the company’s Read More …
The Return of the Beef Trust
“You should be suing Walmart [instead of IBP], they are the problem. They tell us what they will pay and we have no choice but to pay you less” – John Tyson was at the 2002 NCBA convention to announce his intent to purchase IBP, the biggest beef packer in the world. Callicrate informed him of the cattlemen’s lawsuit against IBP for unfair market practices. “It has been brought to such a high degree of concentration that it Read More …
Failed Promises
By J. Dudley Butler When Obama made grandiose promises about protecting farmers’ rights Many farmers were hopeful and saw a glimmer of light They turned out and supported Obama in his time of need Obama appointed Vilsack and Holder and told them his words to heed They gave grand speeches and promised big change But in the long run it was just more of the same Vilsack appointed Butler who knew the law and the facts But Vilsack Read More …
A Failure of Justice – Delivered to Cattleman’s Front Door
Eleven years ago a few good cattlemen stood up for justice in an Alabama courtroom.
Eleven years ago a few cattlemen stood up for justice in an Alabama courtroom. The jury awarded the cattlemen $1.28 billion in damages for Tyson/IBP’s manipulation of the cattle market. Before the court could consider injunctive relief, Judge Lyle B. Strom reversed the jury verdict and ordered the cattlemen to pay Tyson/IBP’s court costs of $80,000. The Supreme Court refused to hear the cattlemen’s case for fair markets in favor of the Anna Nicole Smith family feud case. Read More …