Brazil’s JBS, the World’s Largest, Most Corrupt Meatpacker, to Receive $22 Million in U.S. Farm Bailout Money

Update: It is now reported that USDA will award 22,331,309 to JBS under the bailout program, rather than the $5 million previously reported. See the USDA Purchase Award Description here.  It has been reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will award $5 million in U.S. taxpayer funds to Brazilian-owned meatpacking corporation, JBS, under the bailout program meant to help American farmers hurt by the trade war. In November 2018, Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods rescinded its bid for bailout money after a backlash Read More …

Voice from the Ranch: Nebraska Cattle Producer Screwed by JBS Speaks the Truth

The world’s largest beef processing corporation, JBS, is underpaying family farmers and ranchers for their cattle. Even worse, our government is letting them get away with it. A recent announcement of yet another case where a JBS meatpacking plant failed to properly weigh and keep track of cattle delivered to its plant resulted in a paltry settlement between JBS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), highlighting how USDA is failing the American farmer and rancher. USDA Secretary Read More …

New JBS Violations Highlight Weak Enforcement of Packers & Stockyards Act

Today, Organization for Competitive Markets received information indicating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will be releasing the terms of a settlement agreement with JBS Swift over its gross mishandling of beef carcasses at its Grand Island, Nebraska facility, its largest beef processing plant in the U.S. This unconscionable practice led to probable underpayments to cattle producers in violation of the Packers & Stockyards Act. In a soon to be released press statement, AMS Read More …

Sen. Roberts Tells Trump to Forget COOL While Brazil’s Rotten Meat Scandal Widens Worldwide

Two of the world’s largest meat companies, Brazilian meatpackers JBS and BRF, have been exposed for exporting rotten beef and trying to cover it up with cancer-causing acid products. Bloomberg reports that “Brazilian prosecutors allege some sausages and cold cuts contained animal parts such as pig heads, that some meat products were adulterated with cardboard, and that in some cases acid was used mask the smell of tainted meat.” At least 10 countries, including China, Canada, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Read More …

Refugees, Meatpacking, and Rural Communities

One week after taking office, President Trump signed the executive order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” which suspended our nation’s refugee program for four months and would cut the number of refugees to be admitted this year by more than half. Among the many who voiced concerns over this edict were Barry Carpenter, president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute, and Cameron Bruett, head of corporate affairs for JBS, USA, Read More …

BANKERS LAWYERS AND POLITICIANS

Readers keeping up with current vents can gather from the news that a couple of front runners in the US presidential race have something in common; It’s Goldman Sachs. I wasn’t invited, but unless it’s Warren Buffet I don’t know what anyone would talk about that could possibly be worth the $670,000 speakers fees Hillary collected from Goldman Sachs, just as I don’t know how I would justify asking to borrow one million dollars from Goldman Sachs to Read More …

Corporate Farming Bill Threatens Nebraska’s Family Farms

NEWS RELEASE February 1, 2016 Corporate Farming Bill Threatens Nebraska’s Family Farms The Organization for Competitive Markets is calling on farmers, ranchers and consumers across Nebraska to strongly oppose a bill in the state legislature that would reduce competition in the marketplace by allowing packer ownership of hogs. Nebraska is the only state that still prohibits packers from owning hogs more than five days prior to slaughter. “We can’t let this happen in Nebraska,” said OCM President Mike Read More …

LB176 Letter to Senators – February 1, 2016

February 1, 2016 Dear Senator: As president of the Organization for Competitive Markets, I sent the Agriculture Committee a strong letter of opposition to LB176 last year. On February 2, 1999, I testified before the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee in favor of LB832, LB833, LB834, and LB835 which were later merged into the Competitive Livestock Markets Act. I testified as the owner and manager of a large beef feedlot in Kansas, and on behalf of the Cattlemen’s Legal Fund, Read More …