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So............how long have the meat cutters been corrupt ?

How long have packers been corrupt

  • since day one

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  • years

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  • never

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HAY MAKER

Well-known member
I have always wondered if the packers were corrupt from the first day they cut their first beef carcass.
Or maybe they are not corrupt at all,maybe some cattlemen are confused after all if you listen to them they will tell you how fine and decent they are............maybe they are ?
good luck
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
I rope with an old friend,he's 78 and still visits the pay window occasionally,nuthin big mind you just some country ropin jackpots,anyway I like to talk to some of these old timers listen to their stories,this one is about Ranchers and packers.
And was told to me by him,passed down from long ago.
anyway....................
Many years ago America was controlled by corporate alliances called trusts,there were several of them,there was a sugar trust,a steel trust a tobacco trust and a beef trust to name a few.
Anyway the Beef trust set cattle prices and anyone who did not like it were unable to sell their cattle at any price.
At the height of the beef trust there were 5 large packers controlling the market,they could make or break any rancher the liked or disliked through sales.
even tho America had trusts it also had trustbusters people and elected poloticians that believed concentrated economic power was a threat to the country.
the Sherman trust act was passed in 1890 after a congressional investigation of price fixin in the meat packing industry,and for the next 25 years the federal goverment tried to break the beef trust with no success.
In 1917Woodrow wilson ordered the federal trade commission to investigate the meat packers
the feds concluded the packers were fixing prices and had for years,now this is in 1917,so you tell me "do packers have a long hisory of price fixin" and also they had colluded to divide markets,which I believe is being done today.
In 1920 the 5 meat packers afraid that an antitrust trial might land their ass in the pen signed a consent form forcing them to sell off their stockyards and retail meat stores.
In 1921 congress created the packers and stockyard administration to prevent price fixin by meat packers.
For the next 50 years ranchers sold their stock in a competetive market place,the price of cattle was set in open bidding at auction,the 5 large packers competed with hundreds of small packers,as it should be today
The propose gipsa rule will go along ways towards that goal,packers are just buisness men,they want as much as they can get,keep em on a short rope and ever thing will be fine.
good luck
 

mrj

Well-known member
Haymaker, mostly in the interest of keeping you from having to talk to yourself on this thread, are you asking us to believe that there never has been and is not now, any cheating of cattle sellers or buyers in that "open competitive bidding at auction"???

And, how much is a fattened steer going to shrink, and get stressed to the point of being a 'dark cutter', or toughening the meat when processed if he is loaded and hauled to an auction, mingled with strange cattle, loaded again and hauled to the packing plant, and finally processed?

How much is that process going to add to the costs, including the deterioration of quality of the beef after processing?

I and other family members spent several days this week attending the SD Cattlemens' convention, working to make the cattle business better, and learning more about our industry to make our own ranches better.

Now, being home for a few minutes, I learn I'm a "bitter old woman" with little to do. I WISH I had a little less to do! Off to a great Christmas party in a couple of hours, then attending a community Christmas event most of tomorrow, so won't be back on ranchers.net for a day or so.

Oh, I do confess to being 70 years old and hope to get LOTS older. Too much fun watching my grandchildren grow up to leave now. Too much work to do, and too little time to feel sorry for myself or to waste it being bitter and mean and blowing it off it as just "good fun"....as some do!

mrj
 

cedardell

Well-known member
Mr. Haymaker, I am almost as old as MRJ and can tell a lot of stories about packer corruption. We shipped to the central market in Chicago for years. They screwed with the scales. They closed scales and guessed at weights. They colluded and wouldn't infringe on others bid. They even invented fake packing plants to make producers think there was competition. They even control our govt to protect their schemes. They have solidified their positiion by moving outside the US in the pretense of world trade. Now they are not even under the auspises of US rules. Because they are the mafia and control our govt. and because of world trade politics there is no hope. How can you have a world trade system without a world justice system? They have put our country 40 trillion dollars in dept with an incredable options scam in the mortgage credit default swaps scam. Then they funnel millions of dollars from that into political compaign funds. And now Mr. F word is running for mayor of Chicago. So what do you do? I think we are beyond help.
 

mrj

Well-known member
Don't 'stories' claiming criminal activity require any sort of verification from independent sources to be believable, unless one is hooked on conspiracy theories and finds any hint of one believable????

mrj
 

cedardell

Well-known member
Wally Manders was convicted of every thing I mentioned. It"s case history. His packing plant" Illini Pack". of Chicago was closed. He was fined a large sum of money, imprisioned, then sent back to "The Old Country" because he was not a US cititzen. Shortly after that the Joliet Livestock Market which was the last vestige of the old Chicago Stockyards was closed from a lack of buyers. Eastern Livestock which is in the news now was an offshoot of the old "Chicago Crew">
 

cedardell

Well-known member
A must read for everyone to understand why out govt. is so hoplessly in dept is a chronology of market fraud of the mortgage industry.TThe Big Short" by Micheal Lewis" describes how a few select individuals bought up all the mortgages that were bound to fail and set up an options trading market for them. The then shorted that market with the big banks being long and AIG insuring the whole thing. End reuult- a few fabulasely rich fund managers and the US citizens bailing out the whole world. Randy Hultgren from Illinois and Ram Emanual got a holt of some of the profits and fortified the Democrates with it. Could this be why every other counrty except the USA has prosecuted the perpitrators and convicted them and made them give back the money through fines. We just elect them to run the country. There is case history in France and Germany for this, but I don't know how to access it. Victor Mizulo was prosecuted for this in the US but he plea bargained his way out of it. Mainly because the SES couldn't figure out whether this was illegal. He got off with a slap on the wrist with a 67million fine. So how much did he make?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Everyone should read PAST PRESENT And how we can survive the FUTURE in the beef cattle business by Benjamin C. Roberts...

It definitely gives a history of the mafia type control the Packers have had over the beef industry for numerous years--and the monopolies and collusion between "the families" they used to keep and gain more control...
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Everyone should read PAST PRESENT And how we can survive the FUTURE in the beef cattle business by Benjamin C. Roberts...

It definitely gives a history of the mafia type control the Packers have had over the beef industry for numerous years--and the monopolies and collusion between "the families" they used to keep and gain more control...

Could you point out the chapter that states what charges were proven?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
Oldtimer said:
Everyone should read PAST PRESENT And how we can survive the FUTURE in the beef cattle business by Benjamin C. Roberts...

It definitely gives a history of the mafia type control the Packers have had over the beef industry for numerous years--and the monopolies and collusion between "the families" they used to keep and gain more control...

Could you point out the chapter that states what charges were proven?

My membrance is they did an out of court settlement- with the Packers agreeing to change some of their methods if the charges were dropped- and the government going along with that...
 

mrj

Well-known member
Thank you for the information re. Wally Manders. What year, and approximately will do if you don't recall exactly, was that?

It would seem to show that crime by packers does not go unpunished, so maybe those who insist that payoffs happen all the time in that industry and that the continous crime claims are bogus. It just doesn't make sense that every large packing company is a criminal outfit.

I will agree with you on the Chicago political crimes history, continuing into, and very likely driving the Obama administration to this day.

mrj
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I would like to know how many violations of the PSA have occurred at the stockyards and how many have occurred at the packers relative to each of their numbers. I bet the results of that study would open a few eyes. I can remember a particular sale barn manager who called for enforcement of the PSA until it was enforced at his salebarn. Haha!

"HEY, LOOK OVER THERE...."


~SH~
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
How many people do we know that are committing fraud in getting welfare from the government compared to how many that have been successfully prosecuted?
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
How many people do we know that are committing fraud in getting welfare from the government compared to how many that have been successfully prosecuted?

Number of individuals or $$'s? Does the Governement truly care about either?

Maybe one pays for the other, hmmmm?
 

cedardell

Well-known member
You can follow the corruption right to the White House. When Congress appointed a special prosecuter, Smaltz, to investigate the Sectretay of Agriculture during the Clinton administration, he uncovered a pilot who flew bags of money from Tyson's fledgling plant to Clinton who was then the Governor of Arkansas. Janet Reno shut down the investigation and all Smaltz could do was report it in the news. So now what does Tyson control? How different would life be if we didn't intermingle crime and politics?
 

Mike

Well-known member
cedardell said:
You can follow the corruption right to the White House. When Congress appointed a special prosecuter, Smaltz, to investigate the Sectretay of Agriculture during the Clinton administration, he uncovered a pilot who flew bags of money from Tyson's fledgling plant to Clinton who was then the Governor of Arkansas. Janet Reno shut down the investigation and all Smaltz could do was report it in the news. So now what does Tyson control? How different would life be if we didn't intermingle crime and politics?

Good post.
 
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