Month: December 2023

In Texas, nearly 18,000 cows died in a single barn fire. This is how it happened

Smoke fills the sky at the farm April 10, 2023. Castro County Emergency Management/AP Rick Jervis, December 27, 2023 USA TODAY This article contains disturbing images. CASTRO COUNTY, Texas – The aroma of cow manure rode the spring breeze, as it always does in this stretch of Texas panhandle, where the wind lifts an endless…



Farm Action Means Real Action

Note from Basel Musharbash: No group punches above its weight like Farm Action does. No group has done more expansive and impactful work to help policymakers understand — and address — monopoly power in our food and agriculture system than Farm Action has. Take a look at what they did just this year: 2023 in…



The Strom decision was a defining moment in the livestock industry

All legal remedies for cattle producers were exhausted. Hope was lost. December 17, 2023 by Mike Callicrate May Judge Strom rest in peace. Judge Lyle E. Strom died on Dec 1st, twenty years after his landmark decision to reverse the $1.28 billion jury verdict in the cattlemen’s case for fair markets, Pickett vs IBP. Between…



The Hill: Government checkoff programs should work for farmers, not industry lobbyists

BY SENS. CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) AND MIKE LEE (R-UTAH), OPINION CONTRIBUTORS – 12/20/23 7:33 AM ET FILE – Cows graze in a field at a farm, Aug. 17, 2021, in Penobscot, Maine. The USDA trying to strengthen its system for animal-raising claims such as “pasture raised” and “grass fed”. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) Fairness…



SEC Alleges Beef Co. is Ponzi Scheme

SEC Alleges Texas Cattle Investment is $191 Million Ponzi Scheme About to Implode 12/14/2023 | 3:42 PM CST By DTN Ag Policy Editor OMAHA (DTN) — The Securities and Exchange Commission has frozen the assets of a Texas-based cattle marketing company, alleging the company fraudulently sold securities in "cattle contracts" as a $191 million Ponzi…



Buying from Big Ag: How Government Food Procurement Reinforces Monopoly Power (and What We Can Do About It!)

November 28, 2023 Introduction Every year, the U.S. government spends billions of dollars on food. In 2022, including everything from food for military bases to school lunch programs, the government spent more than $9 billion on food procurement. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Defense get the biggest slices of the…



Greg Gunthorp comments on the Effective Food Procurement Act

After two restaurant deliveries, Greg makes an early morning flight to DC. Greg Gunthorp comments on the Effective Food Procurement Act. Good afternoon, I’m Greg Gunthorp. Artisanal Farmer and processor. I’m on the board of American Grassfed Association and member of Farm Action and National Farmers Union. We raise pastured pigs, pastured poultry, and grassfed…