The following is a letter sent to the President and various members of the Administration  Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.

Dear President Obama, Vice
President Biden, Secretary Vilsack, Majority Leader Reid, Minority Leader McConnell,
Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader Boehner, Chairwoman Lincoln, Ranking Member
Chambliss, Chairman Peterson, and Ranking Member Lucas:

While absolutely no one was
watching, $6.4 billion has been stolen since Jan. 1, 2007, from the U.S. live
cattle industry in the U.S. fed cattle market alone.
This conservative estimate is based on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
data that show the average loss from each of the 49 million head of fed cattle sold
by U.S. cattle feeders was over $48 in 2007, over $150 in 2008, and over $65 in
2009.

This money was stolen from what
has historically been the single largest segment of American agriculture, the
U.S. live cattle industry, that provides the economic cornerstones for most
rural communities across America.
It was stolen directly from the hands of the nation’s 82,170 remaining cattle
feeders and transferred into the hands of just a few mega-meatpackers, only
four of which control over 85 percent of the fed cattle market in the nation’s
$50 billion live cattle industry.

This theft
occurred in broad daylight. Neither USDA nor the U.S. Department of Justice,
nor Congress, has yet lifted a finger to effectively address the systemic lack
of antitrust enforcement within our cattle industry, or to prohibit the
rampant, anticompetitive practices pervasive within our U.S. cattle market, or
to reverse our cattle industry’s horrendous trade deficit.

 “Stolen” and
“theft” are harsh words, but demonstrably appropriate in this instance, as U.S.
beef consumers have watched their retail beef prices race to record highs and
then remain at near-record levels throughout the more than two-year assault on
independent U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers.
And, the mega-meatpackers prospered greatly at the expense of U.S. cattle
farmers and ranchers, as well as consumers, with mega-meatpacker
Brazilian-based JBS USA earning $51 million in the first quarter of 2009 and
$321 million in 2008 before interest, taxes and other expenses, which far
exceed its earnings of $53 million in 2006.
Tyson, the nation’s largest beef packer, reported operating income of $613
million and $331 million in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and claims that its
beef and pork segments are what kept Tyson profitable in 2008.
And, National Beef Packing Co., the nation’s fourth largest beef packer,
reported its net profits through the first three quarters of its fiscal year
were up 85 percent, with
profits during its most recent quarter that ended May 30, 2009, exceeding $46
million.

The
losses to U.S. cattle feeders continue and are compounding rapidly. Those
remaining in the cattle feeding business are becoming fewer and fewer each day.
The combination of cattle feeding losses and the closure of cattle feeding
businesses translate into even less competition and even more losses for the
independent farmers and ranchers who are the very heart of the U.S. live cattle
industry – the 757,000 remaining beef cattle operations comprised largely of
independent cow/calf producers, backgrounders and stockers who are scattered
all across America. Their
numbers also are shrinking at an alarming rate, and Rural America is reeling
from the consequential, rapid loss of its economic base. We may already have
reached the point of no return: the point where it no longer matters if
competition is restored because the industry may already lack the critical mass
of independent cattle farmers and ranchers necessary to sustain a competitive
industry.

Our
nation already has accomplished this despicable feat of reaching the point of
no return in the dairy and hog industries, wherein the number of farming
operations with economically viable herd sizes of over 100 head of animals has
shrunk to a paltry 16,000 and 14,150, respectively.
This is a most impressive disaster, as it is the direct result of this nation’s
impervious refusal to take any action while 80 percent of the dairy operations
and 90 percent of the hog operations have exited the industries since 1980.
The government’s answer to assist these now nearly fully corporate-controlled
livestock industries that have purged hundreds of thousands of independent
farmers from their ranks is to send these corporations taxpayer money in the
form of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds or other emergency
assistance.  For example, Congress
recently earmarked $350 million in emergency assistance for what is left of the
U.S. dairy industry, and USDA has reportedly spent $165 million to buy pork from corporate hog
packers, presumably to help the almost fully integrated corporate hog industry structure
that has literally wiped out 90 percent of our nation’s independent hog
farmers.

It is doubtful
that any substantive portion of this money will ever make it into the hands of
the very few independent farmers remaining in either the dairy or hog
industries. The lion’s share of this money most certainly will flow to the very
corporations that, because they have been advantaged by corporate-oriented
trade policies and have freely operated with impunity from proper enforcement
of antitrust laws and prohibitions against anticompetitive practices, are
largely responsible for gutting these industries in the first place.  

The U.S. cattle
industry literally is the last frontier within the U.S. livestock and poultry
industries: it is the only remaining major livestock sector that is not already
nearly completely vertically integrated by the mega-meatpackers and processors
from birth-to-plate, egg-to-plate, or birth-to-milk. But, this distinction
cannot last long under the ongoing and unbearable financial losses plaguing its
independent participants.  

Rural America, as
well as the nation’s meat safety and meat security, are threatened directly
from the inaction of your Administration and Congress regarding the acute
crisis facing our nation’s cattle farmers and ranchers. Our calls for strict
enforcement of antitrust laws have fallen on deaf ears as the Justice
Department has just signaled approval for one of the most compelling, if not
the most compelling, meatpacker mergers in
history – the merger between the world’s largest beef packer (JBS S.A.) and
North America’s largest poultry processor (Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation). Our
calls to prohibit anticompetitive practices also have fallen on deaf ears as
the Department of Justice recently allowed the world’s largest beef packer (JBS
S.A.) to purchase the United States’ largest cattle feeding operation (Five
Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, LLC). Additionally, our calls for trade reform
have fallen on deaf ears as your Administration and Congress have refused to
take steps to mitigate, in any way, the $1.6 billion-plus annual economic drain
to our live cattle industry caused by the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) and the host of other poorly negotiated free trade agreements.[xiii]

Our U.S. cattle markets
are broken. Our cattle prices are persistently below the cost of production. Our
industry is shrinking, and all the while U.S. consumers are still paying near
record prices for beef to the dominant meatpackers and retailers. There is no
light shining at the end of this tunnel. Our industry is in an acute crisis, and
no action has yet been taken to avert it. All of Rural America, likewise, is suffering
from Congress’ and your Administration’s inaction.   

            Proposed
workshops, studies, and investigations into the despicable practices and
policies that have all but completely destroyed our once vibrant U.S. cattle
industry, along with the tens of thousands of rural communities it recently
supported, are wholly inadequate as responses to the cataclysmic condition of
our industry today.

            Immediate,
decisive action must now be taken to avoid further destruction to the integrity
and structure of our independent producer-based U.S. cattle industry and the
rural communities it supports following the loss of over $6.4 billion in
essential revenues.

In February,
following four consecutive months of losses to the U.S. cattle industry that
exceeded $289 per head, R-CALF USA, on behalf of the U.S. cattle industry, urged
the immediate restoration of previously weakened U.S. disease protections,
starting with the reversal of USDA’s over-30-month rule (OTM Rule) that allows
higher-risk, older cattle to be imported into the United States from Canada.
These older cattle are adding significantly to price-depressing supplies and
aggravating consumer concerns about beef safety. We also urged an immediate end
to the anticompetitive marketing practices of the concentrated meatpackers,
particularly their strategic use of price-depressing captive supplies. Neither
of these recommendations has been implemented. 

In May, R-CALF
USA again urged action to restore the integrity of the U.S. cattle industry by
restoring the health of our domestic cattle herd and the safety of the beef
produced from our cattle and restoring the competitiveness of our industry by
enforcing antitrust laws, prohibiting anticompetitive practices and including
protections in trade policy that recognize the supply sensitive nature of the
U.S. cattle industry. Again, none of these recommendations have been
implemented. 

Will your
Administration and Congress take decisive action to alleviate the deplorable
losses accruing to U.S. independent cattle farmers and ranchers by immediately taking
the specific actions we have previously requested and reiterate above?    

Or, must we now yield
to government assistance in the form of TARP funds or other emergency
assistance – as have other U.S. industry segments, including our sister dairy
and hog industries – to begin to redress the horrific damage caused by the
unbridled excesses of the dominant corporate meatpackers and failed U.S. trade
policies? Or, do you have a better, market-oriented solution that would allow
us to salvage what is left of our injured U.S. cattle industry?

We, the
undersigned representatives of the U.S. cattle industry, including the officers,
directors and committee chairs of R-CALF USA and the presidents or chairs of 10
statewide cattle associations, as well as a director from the Intertribal
Agriculture Council, look forward to your timely response to this urgent
request.

Sincerely,

R.M. Thornsberry, D.V.M.