If you go to the grocery store and look at the empty shelves at the meat counter, do not be fooled into the idea that there is a shortage, because their is not. Thousands of cattle ranchers across the country are getting less than $0.90 a pound for fat cattle or are being flat out refused by big corporate slaughter plants. Now realize that the producer gets less than a dollar a pound and stands to lose more than $60,000 a load on cattle they put their entire lives in to. Now large slaughter plants are neccessary to keep up with market demand and I recognize that, but holding ready to sell beef since febuary in order to create a spike in profits at the retail counter, while accomplishing nothing but bankrupting ranchers everywhere, and creating shortages seen across the country.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/live-cattle-price
I created a Google Maps that you can click on and interact with and look at a few locations that play a role how have been impacted, that you can find below.
I was able to talk with Clara Bramble, a cattle rancher in Queen Anne Maryland, and discussed the impacts they have seen through the pandemic.
I asked Clara how their operation has been impacted and she explained a rise in business. “We raise and sell 100% grass finished beef and already had a pretty niche market and popularity locally. The pandemic has actually brought a big increase in orders where normally a first time buyer would order a quarter or half, they are ordering a whole. We feel even though some will go back to buying weekly at the local grocery stores there’s going to be many that once they see and taste the quality and freshness we will have continued customers coming back year after year.“
“Corporate slaughter plants are needed but the control they’ve taken needs to be changed. Local and regional butchers and slaughter houses need to be encouraged within centers to do so, and if another pandemic ever happens and it will our food chain will not have a kink in it.”
We need to take back control, give incentives to smaller businesses or they can handle processing more local beef, keep more money in the producers pocket, money locally, and more local and nutritious beef on the consumers table.
Pin 1: Bridgeport Nebraska- Everywhere around me, cattleman in my rural community are facing hardships, and feeling the effects of a monopolized system. I concluded this pin because this is my own community, friends and family are losing everything over a fabricated panic created by those who have too much power over the i duatry and our food system. When we are outnumbered by cattle by the tens of thousands in just my county alone, it is clear that to ensure that our next generation has something left, then we need to fight for what we believe in and make changes before it is started too late.
Pin 2: Scotts Bluff Nebraska- There were several smaller family owned butcher shops that have been ran for many years by the same families, that have had to close their doors over the last several years because larger packing plants have driven prices so low, there’s is no competing or even trying to do custom orders anymore. After this ordeal however, many have realized the necessity for small owned butcher shops, and have found out the hard way why they need to be supported and why they need to stay in oour communities. My mom works at a small shop where they process larger pieces of meat and sell it, and by getting product from both local ranchers and sources like Cargill and JBS, quality of product has gone down substantially in what does not come from local sources.
Pin 3: Greeley Colorado- A JBS plant resides here, and it has nearly shutdown all processing of any cattlror livestock period. The corporation however they stand to gain thousands per head, and have been unknowingly given the power to set market price, while cattleman are watching their livelihoods slip away every passing day. When will we realize that supporting local business and inner country production is the only way we will be able to support ourselves and the agriculture industry? Whe its too late to do anything about it?
Pin 4: Grand Island Nebraska- Another Plant resides here, and has began a small amount of processing, however unions have put a halt to their workers working, and are demanding large pay increases, while those who give them the ability and means to work, (ranchers) are losing everything over their selfishness. Several ranchers in my community have been forced to sell heavy and overdone fat cattle to this plant just to get the new out of their feedlots so they don’t cripple. $0.90 on a 1300 animal doesn’t scrape the surface on what was put into getting that animal ready for processing.
Pin 5: Queen Anne Maryland- The bramble family have been really lucky living in an area that is heavily supportive area and have actually seen a spike in orders for their grassfed beef, however they too know the struggles of getting their cattle processed. Clara mentioned that it hasn’t been one issue they have faced, and have had to wait a little longer to get processed beef back. No doubt they are one of the few lucky ones that had a backup to a backup plan in place.
After talking with several producers and seeing first hand the impact this situation has had on the agriculture industry, I have even had my eyes opened to the hardships and reality of the dire situation cattleman are facing daily right now. I hope that everyone who reads this thinks more about supporting local producers, they are the ones who support you, so show some love. Now more than ever before, we must all be in this together, and do what we can to help each through this hard time, and into a brighter tomorrow.
My Life Through Agriculture 