October 19, 2007
NCBA Partners with Packers Yet Again to Oppose
Market Reforms That Would Benefit Independent Producers
Washington, D.C. – It’s déjà vu all over again. In July, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) teamed up with the multinational meatpackers in an effort to derail country-of-origin labeling (COOL), although at that time, NCBA chose not to disclose that it was a member of the Meat and Poultry Promotion Coalition (coalition), which was formed by the nation’s largest meatpackers and their trade associations to defeat producer-oriented reforms.
Just this week in a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, this coalition encouraged him to withdraw his proposals for competition reform in the livestock marketplace and to drop any plans to include a Livestock Title in the 2007 Farm Bill.
“It’s no secret that NCBA has long been part of the packer lobby,” said R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, a Missouri veterinarian. “But no matter how NCBA tries to spin it, this is the group that tried – for years – to repeal COOL, and also tried to prevent meaningful market reforms that not only would benefit producers, but also the rural communities in which they live.
“Now, by officially joining this meatpacker lobby and signing on to this letter, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that NCBA is working against the interests of independent livestock producers,” he emphasized.
Other members of the Meat and Poultry Promotion Coalition include Tyson Foods, Swift & Co., Cargill, U.S. Premium Beef, National Beef, Smithfield Foods, Hormel Foods, Hatfield Quality Meats, Christensen Farms, the American Meat Institute, the National Meat Association, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation, and the American Foods Group.
“This list should serve as a red flag warning to every cattle producer in the United States,” Thornsberry said. “The writing is on the wall. This coalition wants to vertically integrate the U.S. cattle industry, and NCBA is right in the thick of it. If U.S. cattle producers want to pass their heritage and lifestyle on to younger generations, the time to stand up and fight is now.
“It is an economic impossibility for producers who sell live cattle to have the same marketing interests as meatpackers who buy live cattle,” he explained. “These two particular entities must compete against each other to maximize their respective profits, and minimize their respective risks. This is a fundamental economic principle that cannot be ignored.”
The Livestock Title contains many provisions not yet relevant to the cattle industry by addressing many severe problems that developed because Congress allowed large meatpackers to exert undue control over the production and marketing of poultry and hogs. This control eliminated the competitive cash market for poultry and nearly eliminated the competitive cash market for hogs. As a result, the once independent poultry and hog producers are now contract growers, and only now is Congress stepping in to regulate the relationship between the contract grower and the meatpacker in an effort to fix what has become an untenable problem. The packers for these two industries possess a disparate share of market power, and the U.S. cattle industry does not want to go there.
“We don’t want our cash cattle market usurped by large meatpackers, and we don’t want to be forced to enter grower contracts, but that’s where we’re headed unless Congress does for us what it did not do for those other industries,” Thornsberry asserted. “Congress must take proactive steps to ensure U.S. cattle markets remain open and competitive, and free from meatpacker control.”
Note: To view R-CALF USA’s recent letter to U.S. Senators to request a Livestock Title in the 2007 Farm Bill, please visit the “Competition Issues” link at www.r-calfusa where the Meat and Poultry Promotion Coalition’s letter to Harkin also is available.