Masters of Food Universe Threaten U.S. Food Security
They come, they extract, and they leave – Cattle and beef industries go down in flames.
August 21, 2026
With the cooperation of the U.S. government, the beef industry has been industrialized, globalized, and financialized by a handful of unrestrained multinational corporations and their oligarch owners. With control over Congress and cozy ties to the White House a handful of powerful men are able extract whatever wealth they want from one of America’s most critical industries.
“Lots of good hog farmers were ran out of business by the corporate takeover of the hog industry that culminated in that 1998 crash.” – Greg Gunthorp
As consumer beef prices have increased, cattle producers have gone broke, workers have been exploited and left unemployed, critical infrastructure has been lost, rural communities continue their decline, and all of us lose a safe and dependable food supply. The threat cannot be overstated as we have already lost nearly half our ranchers, 76,000 cattle feeding operations, and liquidated nearly 10 million cows, leaving once thriving beef producing pastures to burn.
November 2025 – According to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan in their book, Regime Change, Joesley Batista, a friend of first lady Melania Trump, was welcomed into the White House to help the newly elected administration strategize how to remove Nicolas Maduro as the president of Venezuela. JBS and Brazilian beef have been granted preferential access to U.S. consumers.
Tyson announces more plant closures – matching kill capacity to the declining U.S. cow herd they and the other big meatpackers have caused.
To better understand the dilemma, let’s look at USDA’s data on the producer’s share of the retail beef dollar. In 1970, there were many buyers and sellers operating in a thriving competitive marketplace. The producer, who invests around 85% of the capital to put beef on the consumers plate, received 82% of what consumers spent on beef, compared to 51% last week. The producer’s share dropped as low as 27% during the pandemic. This calculates to a current loss at the farm and ranch gate of around $1,700 per head.
Going back to pre-1970s market structure would rebuild the cow herd, put people back on the land to rebuild rural communities, improve meat quality, and make beef affordable again.
See: Return to Carcass Trade – Getting Out of the Box
For the last forty years antitrust cops have ignored the growing monopoly control of our food system.
Powerful retailers, laughing at meatpackers crying about tight margins, take most of the $1,700. End of the line companies like Walmart and Kroger, and food wholesaler Sysco, control the market and the margins as they look to cheaper imports to maximize profits. For big meat-packers, it’s easier to buy cattle cheaper than to sell meat higher, leaving domestic cattle producers begging and beef and cattle imports growing.
Sysco dominates the food service sector, stealing niche markets and blocking struggling local/regional slaughter plants from restaurant and institutional wholesale markets.
With cow numbers at 75-year lows and skyrocketing demand, the cattle markets are crashing. Why? Hog farmer Greg Gunthorp can tell you, “Lots of good hog farmers were ran out of business by the corporate takeover of the hog industry that culminated in that 1998 crash. The year live hogs went to eight cents, yet retail pork went up from $2.59 to $2.61 in the store”
Cattle producers aren’t just raising cattle and feeding us, they’re stewarding our nation’s lands, while struggling to keep our rural communities alive. They’re mostly older, with kids looking to leave, refusing to accept the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s vision of a cattle industry structured like industrial chicken and hog farming.
Who will feed us?
Source: https://nobull.mikecallicrate.com/2026/08/21/masters-of-food-universe-threaten-u-s-food-security/
Related: August 21, 2026
