5. Breakdown of Retail Beef Dollar - 1975 When the market was competitive Retailer Packer Cattle Producer
6. Breakdown of Retail Beef Dollar - 2010 A picture of abusive market power and rural decline Big Packers and Retailers Cash In Cattle Producers Go Broke Product turns every 7 to 14 days. Retailer gets ≈ $1,100 per hd.. Packer and retailer share less than 15% of the capital investment required to get product to consumer. Concentration and resulting market power of the packer and retailer has taken away approximately 20% of the producer’s share of what the consumer spends - around $400 per head. Time from conception to retail meat counter is approximately 27 months. More than 85% of total capital investment to put meat on the consumer’s plate is provided by the producer. The producer has lost approximately $400 per head, or 20%, of their share of the consumer beef dollar since 1980. 41% of U.S. cattle producers have gone out of business since 1980. Approximately 1,000 cattle producers continue to go out of business every month. Retailer receives 49% of retail dollar selling 556 lbs. of beef from a 1,325 lb. animal @ $4.26 per lb. average price = $2,369 Producer raises a 1,325 lb. animal and receives 42.5% of retail dollar ≈ $1,000 Packer receives 8.5% Kills 1,325 lb. animal for around $200 per hd. Retailer is grabbing $1,100 Market Concentration Kills Competition Four biggest packers control 88% of market Four biggest retailers control 50.7% (FWW) NOTE: Calculations are based on 2009 USDA-ERS data Retail beef dollar calculation represents fresh beef consistently through the time period - doesn’t include value added products. Costs to make retail ready shouldn’t exceed 50 cents per lb. x 556 lbs. - about $250 per hd. Prepared By Mike Callicrate, St. Francis, KS
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8. The Dark Side of the All American Meal “Fast food has hastened the mauling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled a juggernaut of American cultural imperialism abroad.”
12. Poorest counties by per capita income Note: The poorest counties are in rural cattle producing areas. Statistics derived from U.S. Census Bureau data; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Survey of Current Business; and DataQuick Information Systems, a public records database company located in La Jolla, San Diego, CA.
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15. The wealthiest households reaped a sharply growing share of the nation’s income, while the share going to middle- and lower-income households shrank (see Figure 3). Between 1979 and 2007: The top 1 percent’s share of the nation’s total after-tax household income more than doubled, from 7.5 percent to 17.1 percent. The share of income going to the middle three-fifths (or 60 percent) of households shrank from 51.1 percent to 43.5 percent. The share going to the bottom fifth of households declined from 6.8 percent to 4.9 percent. The share going to the bottom four-fifths (80 percent) of the population declined from 58 percent to 48 percent.
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17. In 2007, the top 1 percent received a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income than the middle 20 percent of the population. This represents a significant change from 1979, when the middle fifth received more than twice as much of the nation’s income as the top 1 percent (16.5 percent versus 7.5 percent).
21. “But the cruelest of our revenue laws, I will venture to affirm, are mild and gentle in comparison to some of those which the clamour of our merchants and manufacturers has extorted from the legislature, for the support of their own absurd and oppressive monopolies. Like the laws of Draco, these laws may be said to be all written in blood.” - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776
22. Barry Lynn's Cornered is..."A manifesto for our time." --Thomas Frank, Wall Street Journal
23. “I believe that if trade is not fair for all, then trade is free in name only. I will not stand by and watch American workers lose their jobs because other nations do not play by the rules.” - Ronald Reagan
25. “We will never have true civilization until we learn to recognize the rights of others.” -Will Rogers
26. There is no greater threat to human social and economic well-being than the concentration of power and wealth into the hands of a few.
27. Protectionism: The act of protecting. In global terms it means protecting ones country from ruin; avoiding policy, whether economic or political, that results in the economic and social destruction of a nation, its people and culture; preventing the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few global elites. (Global elites: The gangsters (a.k.a. banksters), thugs and thieves that leverage one nation’s economy against another until all wealth is accumulated in their hands.)
28. "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." -- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)
29. There is money in the food business… Grocery Manufactures Association
30. N7100C – Cargill N199HF – Hormel Foods N97SJ – J.M. Smucker N1897S – J.M. Smucker N135FT – Albertson’s N46E – Hunt N604CL – Hershey N654CM – Crossmark Corp. N457H – Bank of America N606RP – Nestle Purina Pet Care Co. N102CX – Clorox N545CS – Wells Fargo N604MU – Dean Mfg. Group
31. Meanwhile, back on the farm… Old Calnon place, So. of St. Francis Winter day on Webster St. Trucks in St. Francis, KS Sept. 6, 2009
32. ADM Mission:To unlock the potential of nature to improve the quality of life. “There isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians.” - Dwayne Andreas (Rats in the Grain, p. 306.)
33. “We have a saying in our company: Our competitors are our friends. Our customers are the enemy.”
34. Under the NAFTA time frame, Archer Daniels Midland's profits nearly tripled - from $ 110 million to $ 301 million - and ConAgra's profits grew from $ 143 million to $ 413 million dollars. - Public Citizen
35. Corporate controlled globalization will destroy food security, self reliance, and reduce all food producing countries to third world status. - Mike Callicrate 2003
36. "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran, Irish lawyer and politician, July 10, 1790
37. Consumer Warning: Shopping at Wal-Mart contributes to the economic destruction of rural America and your community! 2000
40. We cannot separate what we believe from how we act in the marketplace and the broader community, for this is where we make our primary contribution to the pursuit of economic justice. - U.S. Bishops 1986