“Our markets are broken, USDA is too scared to force the monolithic packers to abide by the law and Congress refuses to act while hundreds of thousands of family farmers and ranchers exit our industry, which is putting our nation’s food safety and food security at risk,” Thornsberry pointed out. “The packers are now using our court system to circumvent prohibitions against anticompetitive practices and to punish courageous producers like Schumacher who are only trying to protect themselves and their fellow cattle producers from being completely controlled by the concentrated packers. Enough is enough, and it’s time for both consumers and cattle producers to put our cattle industry on a new course.
“R-CALF is calling on both consumers and producers to help protect Schumacher, Callicrate and Koch from the packers’ retaliatory actions and to help R-CALF USA step up the fight to convince Congress and the new Administration to follow through with their promises to restore competition to our U.S. cattle market,” he concluded. “This is going to take four to five years to accomplish, but we must get started today. It is clear that unless cattle producers and consumers step up right now to initiate needed changes, no one else will.”
This recent action by the U.S. Marshals Service demonstrates that family farmers and ranchers – our U.S. food producers – have no means of protecting either their livelihoods or their industry against the anticompetitive and antitrust actions of the packers that continue to drive food-producer prices well below sustainable levels. Producers have sought relief from both the Administration and from Congress, but to no avail. And, producers and R-CALF USA have sought relief in the judicial system where, in three recent cases, they have won their cases before fact-finding juries and district court judges only to have their victories quashed by appellant courts that consistently side with the packers.
Meanwhile, U.S. cattle producers are exiting the U.S. cattle industry by the tens of thousands each year, and consumers are continuing to pay at or near record beef prices while prices paid to cattle producers have fallen well below the cost of production. This spring, while cattle producers lost hundreds of dollars on each head of cattle sold, the share of the consumer’s beef dollar paid to the cattle producer has fallen to the lowest level since the third quarter of 2002, the year when cattle prices were severely depressed. The U.S. cattle industry is fast losing the critical mass of independent producers necessary to ensure the safety and security of the U.S. beef supply.
Anyone who wishes to support R-CALF USA’s efforts to end the injustices against U.S. cattle producers by putting a stop to the packers’ anticompetitive practices and antitrust actions can send their donations to:
R-CALF USA Legal Fund
P.O. Box 30715
Billings, MT 59107
# # # R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners. R-CALF USA directors and committee chairs are extremely active unpaid volunteers. R-CALF USA has dozens of affiliate organizations and various main-street businesses are associate members. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516.
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