National Ag News
R-CALF CEO says it’s time for producers to take back control of the cattle industry
The CEO of R-CALF USA says now is the time for cattle
producers to take back control of their industry.
Bill Bullard says unlike other livestock sectors, the beef
industry still has enough individual components to rebuild competition in the
marketplace. “To completely stop this
process of vertically integrating the industry where the meatpackers will essentially
control the terms of production, the terms of marketing, and actually establish
the value they’re willing to pay to producers,” he says.
He tells Brownfield including cattle producers in an
economic stimulus package doesn’t go far enough. “It fails to recognize that we were in a
crisis long before the last two or three weeks,” he says. “The crisis has to be resolved. This is the opportunity for all the industry
to get together and ask for meaningful reforms.”
Bullard says they also want to see mandatory
Country-of-Origin Labeling restored so American consumers can put American
cattle producers first.
Last week R-CALF USA sent President Trump a letter urging five emergency stopgap measures to be put in place to avert an industry collapse.
