Mike Callicrate | No-Bull Food News

Before The Meat Trust (to the small farmer): My friend, why don’t you raise a few cattle each year? The price of beef is high. You will make good money.

After The Meat Trust (to same small farmer): The price I offer for your cattle is low, is it? Well, you may take it or leave it, my friend. There is nobody else for you to sell to.

[Udo J. Keppler. Tweedledee and Tweedledum. 1913.]

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“In 1979 a beef producer’s share of the consumer dollar was 64%. The Producer’s share has declined to an all time low of 49%.”

Bringing producer share up to date

Producers have lost around $1,500 per head of their share of the consumer beef dollar to the meatpacker/retailer cartel. Rural America is now living off the waste stream of the national economy via dollar stores on it’s way to third-world status.

May 25,1999

‘After-The Fact’ Price Reporting is No Solution to Cattle Crisis 

Analyzing the Proposed Price Reporting Bill

The present Packer-NCBA proposal is a disgrace and disservice to cattle producers and should be completely discarded. In some ways this proposal is worse than the current voluntary reporting system. Today, sellers have immediate access to whatever voluntary information is available. Under the Packer-NCBA proposal, information would be old news, and would be available only at the packer’s control, most likely after the week’s trade is over. The Packer-NCBA proposal still maintains secrecy of the terms of formula, contract and other possible anti-competitive packer supply control methods.

The packers and their “captive” representative, the NCBA, have announced the following goal:

“The goal of mandatory price reporting is to improve market transparency and allow the producer to have more information available to base marketing decisions on.” If only the information allowing cattlemen to make timely decisions was facilitated by this bill, there would be no complaint. Unfortunately, it does not.

Cattlemen won the policy fight at the NCBA convention for mandatory price reporting only to be sold out…

While it may sound good, it means nothing when the actual proposed language is analyzed. Cattlemen won the policy fight at the NCBA convention for mandatory price reporting only to be sold out by the packer-friendly faction within NCBA and NCBA staff in the drafting of the proposed legislation. Collusion is evident and widespread. What has been produced under the guise of “price reporting” is a sham.

As you know, the meat packing industry is highly concentrated. The big packers are now in a position of total control of the industry. Through various methods of controlling supply and demand, the big packers are able to maximize their profits at the expense of both producers and consumers and threaten our nation with the loss of a dependable food supply. The big packers need immediate restrictive emergency regulation to prevent them from doing any further damage to the industry and livestock producers. Packers or their representatives should have no say in this legislation. When they have, such as in this so-called price reporting bill, you see the result – a further strengthening of their monopolistic control.

This Monopoly game is over – Packers have all the money, control, and information

The goal of a mandatory price reporting bill should be to establish special rules and regulations for only the big packers now controlling the markets, and to dissipate that control, such as:

• Restoring price discovery and a more fair and equitable distribution of the consumer meat dollar back to the producer.
• Providing full and complete, timely, on the spot market information on a daily basis of all purchases or sales of cash cattle, beef and beef by-products whether imported, exported or domestic.
• Providing full and complete, timely, on the spot market information on any and all contract, formula, captive or otherwise packer-controlled cattle supplies beyond seven days of delivery.
• Providing all details of the agreement to the public on any captive supply, formula, contract or otherwise packer-controlled supplies of cattle.
• Providing the public and law enforcement officials better access to information, enabling more effective enforcement and prosecution of applicable antitrust laws.
• Providing enforcement officials with clear and mandated orders to guarantee strict adherence to the law.
• Providing strong penalties and deterrents for noncompliance.

It is urgent that a new bill be written embodying these provisions with only livestock producers in mind, giving them the protections against packer ‘anti-competitive’ actions as guaranteed in the Packers and Stockyards Act.

Blaming the victim – IBP CEO and President, Robert Peterson, blames the people he is stealing from for the disastrous state of the cattle industry.

This was the last time we know of that the IBP CEO spoke in front of a large crowd of producers. It didn’t go well for Peterson or the over 800 cattlemen in attendance.

Peterson  blamed the Cattlemen in the room for the broken market he and the other big meatpackers were manipulating.

Peterson and his side kick, Andy Gottshalk, didn’t hold up well to questions and comments from other panel members and producers.

To view the full conference with presentations from Bill Heffernan, Kathleen Kelley, and Mike Callicrate, go to:

1996 South Dakota Governor’s Cattle Conference Fails to Prevent Industry Decline

Who will write today’s global version of The Jungle?

NOTE: Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal was published in 2001 by Eric Schlosser. First serialized by Rolling Stone in 1999, the book has drawn comparisons to Upton Sinclair’s 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle.

Consumers have a right to know where their food comes from – It’s a national security issue.

Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper should stand with Coloradans and support mandatory COOL 

Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) for beef is back on the menu. The American Beef Labeling Act (S. 2716) is a bipartisan food security bill that would guarantee consumers know where their beef comes from by reinstating mandatory COOL. You will often hear politicians and Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack promote a “voluntary” label. We have a voluntary approach to meat labeling right now and it doesn’t work. Since 2016, the steak and hamburger you buy at the grocery store can be mislabeled. Foreign beef is labeled “Product of the USA” even though it may actually be from 20+ other countries. That’s not right and hurts us all.

Why is this happening? Congress caved to the demands of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the meatpacking cartel lobbyists. In 2016, Congress removed “beef” and “ground beef” from the existing mandatory COOL law. Lamb, chicken, fish, fruits, and vegetables continue to be labeled correctly, why not beef? Monopoly power in the meatpacking industry has control over our democracy. Just four corporations, Cargill, JBS, National Beef, and Tyson control 85% of the meat purchasing and packing market. They are putting profits over people and truth in labeling. They want to take beef from all over the world, package it up and label it as “Product of the USA” to get the highest price from consumers.

Do Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper have the courage to stand with us or will they continue to side with the WTO and the meatpacking cartel? The American Beef Labeling Act reinstates mandatory COOL and requires beef sold at retail to be labeled as to where the animal was born, raised, and harvested. Passing this bill will make a difference because:

1. It will prevent the deceptive practice of placing “Product of the USA” labels on foreign beef that continues today.
2. It will enhance our national security and make the entire U.S. beef supply chain more robust, more resilient, and more decentralized.
3. It empowers consumers to choose where beef is produced and the ability to avoid beef from countries with questionable food safety records.
4. It allows you to support America’s independent cattle producers helping revitalize rural communities and preventing the ongoing industry concentration and consolidation.

Reinstating mandatory COOL stops food fraud. This is the beginning of a longer journey to create a level playing field for producers and builds a more resilient food system. In addition to truth in labeling, we must also strengthen antitrust law enforcement by breaking up monopoly power, stop subsidizing industrial ag, and stop favoring larger plants over small processors.

The American Beef Labeling Act is a win-win. It empowers consumers to choose where they want their beef to come from and strengthens the bottom line of Colorado’s independent cattle ranchers. We urge Sen. Bennet and Sen. Hickenlooper to stand with Colorado and not the multinational corporate meatpacking cartel. They should join their Senate colleagues and co-sponsor the American Beef Labeling Act (S.2716).

Dr. Kathryn Bedell runs Roan Creek Ranch in Fruita, CO and is chair of the Western Organization of Resource Council’s (WORC) Agriculture and Food Team.

Mike Callicrate owns Ranch Food Direct in Colorado Springs, CO and is a founding member of the Organization for Competitive Markets, R-CALF, and the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association.