With the latest trend in cattle prices,
there is little doubt that our government is in collusion with the
mega corporations controlling “world trade.” NCBA, led by
packers, convinced our government of the “need” to import fresh
beef from Brazil. At the same time the record high prices of the last
couple of years have seen an astronomical free fall, to the point
many producers are wondering how to survive.
The irony is a mere 21 years ago the
NCBA was actually the NCA wasn't inclusive of the packers which make
up the “beef” end of the industry. Adding to irony is that JBS,
the largest cattle feeding and beef packing company was at the
forefront of the drive to allow fresh beef imports from
Brazil...Where coincidentally, JBS is also the biggest exporter of
beef in the country. Yet another amazingly ironic coincidence, is the
Brazilian Real is worth just over $0.31. With Brazilian prices at
1.61 Real, US prices would need to drop to roughly $0.70 to
“compete.”
Yet the problem with the cattle and
beef industry is not isolated. Governments and the media tell us we
are need to increase production of food for a growing population.
Government programs and nonprofit organizations spend untold billions
of dollars supposedly addressing the problem of malnutrition around
the world. The problem is not production, but distribution. American
dairy producers have been forced to dump over 43,000,000 gallons of
milk this year because of “over production.” Produce farmers in
California are forced to dump millions of tons of “excess”
produce every year, while Mexico exports millions of tons of the same
produce to supermarkets here in the USA (while there population is
forced to illegally cross the border into our country in order to
survive.)
Part of the problem is that food is
considered a “commodity” rather than a necessity. As such,
production as well as price depends on arbitrary prices and orders
determined by a “market” which in reality has become increasingly
irrelevant. It is physically impossible for hunger and excess food to
simultaneous exist on a planet where food may be distributed to any
part of the world within two days. Yet somehow both are existing side
by side as corporations dealing in food commodities profit in the
billions while conducting business practices which force the
destruction of food, and a reduction in people growing food.
The hypocrisy of economists,
governments and organizations around the world,claiming to be
fighting hunger in the world, is that their market systems and
agriculture policies result in the destruction of food rather than
the distribution to those in need. Their policies cater to a few
mega corporations rather than the survival of the individual farmers
growing the food. In my next post I will address how the cattle
industry (at least in the USA) we may be able to at least partially
circumvent the markets.
