Cattle prices hit historic lows in some parts of the country in November, even as the first shipments of Brazilian beef arrived in U.S. ports after the USDA’s recent decision to lift a 13-year-old ban on that country. Ranchers say the combination will likely drive many American ranchers out of business.
Read MoreThe most recent attack by American ranchers on the Department of Agriculture’s beef checkoff tax reached a federal court two weeks ago. The suit, filed by the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF), challenges how the checkoff program operates in Montana. But the outcome of the case could reshape how the checkoff tax system operates across the whole country.
Read MoreAs the summer winds down, here’s a look at some of the biggest stories in food and agriculture consolidation.
Read MorePerdue, one of the four biggest chicken companies in the U.S., last week announced plans to improve quality of life for their chickens and to kill them more humanely. Although the plans have largely been seen as a step forward in animal welfare, three big questions remain: how much will it cost to meet these new standards, who will foot the bill, and when exactly will the reforms happen?
Read More“We need a moratorium here in Iowa. We’ve got too many factory farms.” That’s Adam Mason, state policy director with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. He’s not alone in his desire for dramatic action to be taken against the proliferation of factory farming in his state. Communities across the country are standing up against corporate, industrial farming in their towns and cities. This growing anger is in part a response to weak state and federal protection of open and competitive livestock markets.
Read MoreFew images are more emblematic of the American heartland than that of farmers taking their livestock to market. But if Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts signs a bill passed last month by his state’s legislature, one of the last of the country’s traditional open livestock markets may soon close forever. The bill would remove one of the few safeguards that allow farmers to sell their livestock in a transparent and competitive way.
Read MoreState Senator Ken Schilz introduced LB 176 in the Nebraska state legislature in January to overturn a 15-year-old law – the Competitive Livestock Markets Act – that bans corporations from owning livestock except in the days immediately before slaughter. Known colloquially as the “packer ban,” the law was intended to force corporations to buy their animals from independent producers, thereby supporting a competitive livestock market. What would the impact of this law be on hog farmers?
Read MoreImagine 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 their thermostats, all while lobbying to discredit oil industry critics—from environmentalists to those calling for better safety regulations or alternative energy sources.That’s a deal not even Exxon could pull off, yet the nation’s largest meat-packers now enjoy something quite like it. Today, when you buy a Big Mac or a T-bone, a portion of the cost is a tax on beef, the proceeds from which the government hands over to a private trade group called the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. How did this system come into being? And what is the NCBA doing with all that money?
Read MoreToday, most chicken farmers are growing their animals on contract for huge meatpackers, a system that some farmers call "worse than sharecropping." The Obama Administration promised to investigate how concentration in the chicken industry was negatively impacting farmers. But then, mysteriously, their investigation disappeared. What happened?
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