A small handful of corporations dominate the nation’s food supply. The market control of the top four firms in food retailing, red meat, grain, poultry and milk processing is at a historic high.
Four meat packers now slaughter four of every five of the fat cattle in the U.S. This unprecedented level of market consolidation effectively eliminates free market competition to the detriment of independent family farmers and consumers.
The public policies shaping the U.S. farm and food system are failing the family farmers and ranchers who produce our food. Farmers and ranchers have lost income and independence. Too many have lost their farms and ranches to a system favoring multi-national corporations.
Fair and open livestock markets enable farmers and ranchers, feeders and auction yard owners to keep their independence, run their businesses, provide for their families, and build their rural communities.
WORC members are stepping up to return competition to the livestock markets and economic viability to family farmers and ranchers and their rural communities.
WORC seeks livestock market reform
WORC delivered a request August 27, 2010 to USDA and the Justice Department for rules to require competitive and transparent pricing of meatpackers’ captive supplies of livestock during the competition workshop in Fort Collins.
- Read news release and WORC letter.
Join us at Public Forum on Livestock Markets
On August 26, 2010, ranchers and farmers, meatpacking workers, consumers, and local food and food justice advocates are gathering for a public forum, sponsored by WORC, R-CALF, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, and Food & Water Watch.
The public forum looks at how corporate consolidation has led to an imbalance of power in the food system, with unfair practices putting farmers and ranchers, workers, and consumers at a disadvantage, and why government action, like the proposed GIPSA rule, is overdue.
Speakers include
- Gilles Stockton, WORC
- Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF
- John Stencel, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
- Mark Lauritsen, United Food and Commercial Workers
- Patty Lovera, Food & Water Watch
- Gailmarie Kimmel, moderator with Be Local Northern Colorado
- Rhonda Perry, Missouri Rural Crisis Center
The public forum will be held at the Marriott Hotel of Fort Collins, 350 East Horsetooth Road, 7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26. Seating is limited, so please register here.
USDA/DOJ workshop on competition in livestock markets
On Friday, August 27, 2010, the Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Agriculture are holding an historic workshop on corporate concentration and lack of competition in the agriculture. The focus of this workshop is livestock.
USDA/DOJ Workshop on Competition in the Livestock Industry
8:45 a.m. – 6:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 27
Colorado State University
Lory Student Center
1101 Centre Avenue Mall
Fort Collins, Colorado
You can register for the USDA/DOJ workshop here.
Stop Unfair and deceptive practices by meatpackers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed new rules that will help ensure that giant meatpackers and processors no longer use unfair contracts to give special deals to some farmers and ranchers and punish others. These "undue preference" rules will put all livestock operators on a more even playing field.
As part of a directive by the 2008 Farm Bill, these rules will finally define undue and unreasonable preferences as used in the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921. Livestock producers throughout the country will have the opportunity to tell USDA why they deserve a fair price for their livestock and why packers should use fair practices when procuring those livestock.
- More on Undue Preferences
The livestock market is broken. Big meat packers are taking advantage of honest, hardworking family farmers and ranchers by manipulating the price they pay for livestock.
Fair and open livestock markets enable farmers and rancher, auction yard owners and feeders to keep their independence, run their businesses, provide for their families and build their rural communities.
Captive supply reform would restore competition because packers would bid against each other to win contracts in an open, public way.
- More on Captive Supply.
Mandatory country-of-origin labeling became a reality on September 30, 2008. After waiting for implementation of the law passed in 2002, consumers are able to know the origin of the beef, lamb, pork, fish, poultry, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, and peanuts they buy in grocery stores.
- More on Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling.
Prohibition on Packer Owned Livestock
Competition for livestock prices is reduced when packers own the livestock they slaughter. The harmful combination of high market concentration and the increased use of captive supplies - livestock owned outright by packers or controlled through contracts with farmers and ranchers - has meant lower prices, a smaller share of the retail dollar and shrinking livestock markets for farmers and ranchers.
- More on prohibition of packer owned livestock
National Animal Identification System
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack ended the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS) in February 2010. NAIS was designed to identify and track each and every individual livestock and poultry animal owned by family farm producers or hobby farmers across the country. Put forth as a disease tracking and trace-back security program, NAIS was a fundamentally flawed program that could not deliver real security.
- More on Animal ID
Congress passed the 2008 Farm Bill in June 2008. The issues of competition and concentration in agricultural markets are as important to the health of our agricultural economy as the federal price support and direct assistance programs.
Unfortunately, Congress fell short in addressing the concentration and competition problems of the livestock industry. However, Congress did take some steps forward by adding a Livestock Title to the Farm Bill and setting the state for future work on livestock issues through farm bill policy.
- More on the Livestock Title
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