Month: May 2020

Turns out letting ‘efficient’ monopolies control our food supply was a terrible idea

Image via Shutterstock. Written by Claire Kelloway / Washington Monthly April 29, 2020 For many Americans, grocery shopping has become an intensely stressful experience. To maintain social distancing, people must queue before entering stores. Once inside, they must scramble to find increasingly scarce products, including household staples from milk and eggs to pork and beef….



Lincoln Journal Star: Tyson Foods helped create the meat crisis it now warns against

Tyson Foods helped create the meat crisis it now warns against · JEN SKERRITT Bloomberg News 5.3.20 TYSON FOODS Workers trim beef at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Dakota City, Neb. in 2012. · Keith Myers, Kansas City Star John Tyson, the billionaire whose family business reigns as the largest meat processor in the…



OCM – Nine Actions We Can Take Now to Strengthen Our Agriculture and Food System

9 Actions We Can Take Now to Strengthen Our Agriculture and Food System April 30, 2020 OCM Staff The Covid-19 Pandemic has had many effects on the economy of the United States, and particularly hard-hit has been the agriculture and food sector. Not since the Depression have we seen such a disparity between retail and…



Alan Guebert: Unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!

Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, May 3, 2020 Unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains! Alan Guebert For over a month now, nearly anyone who can lift a fork has asked what the “new normal” in American agriculture will be after Covid-19 loosens its terrible grip. Six weeks later,…



Mother Jones: “The Workers Are Being Sacrificed”

As Cases Mounted, Meatpacker JBS Kept People on Crowded Factory Floors May 1, 2020 With coronavirus outbreaks at two-thirds of the company’s beef processing plants, employees are asking, “Why didn’t they help protect us?” Esther Honig and Ted Genoways For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters. On her…



Tri-State Livestock News – OCM Calls for Breakup of Big Four Meatpackers

OCM Calls for Breakup of Big Four Meatpackers May 30, 2020 LINCOLN, NE: Today, Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is calling for the breakup of the “Big Four” meatpacking companies: Cargill, JBS, National Beef, and Tyson. Together, these four companies control over 85% of the United States beef supply. Recent packing plant closures due to…