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R-CALF USA In the News R-CALF USA in the News - Click here for independent newspaper, magazine, and radio coverage of R-CALF USA's activities across the nation. Also available is the Weekly Roundup with R-CALF USA. R-CALF USA News Releases and Statements *Media: For comments, interviews, and further information, please contact our Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson-Chambers at 406-672-8969 or sdodson@r-calfusa.com. September 2, 2010 Billings, Mont. – Today, R-CALF USA President/Region VI Director Max Thornsberry, DVM, and R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard sent an open letter to members of the U.S. cattle industry and Rural America regarding the Aug. 27, 2010, competition workshop in Fort Collins, Colo., hosted by both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The letter follows in its entirety. September 1, 2010 Billings, Mont. – In a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from the fact that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) stands accused of cheating and misusing government-mandated Beef Checkoff Program dollars, NCBA has resurrected its tiresome attack against R-CALF USA for working with consumer groups such as Food & Water Watch.
September 1, 2010 Billings, Mont. – In an Aug. 25, 2010, news release issued by U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., titled “Senator Roberts Questions USDA Objectivity with GIPSA Proposed Rule and Competition Workshops,” Roberts states that he led a group of Senators – Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Mike Johanns, R-Neb., Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in writing to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding what they called “questionable behavior leading up to a USDA competition workshop and continued objectivity concerns with the recent Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration’s (GIPSA) proposed rule.” August 31, 2010 Fort Collins, Colo. – R-CALF USA wishes to express its gratitude to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Christine Varney for hosting the first-ever historic joint workshop on competition issues in the livestock industry on Aug. 27, 2010, in Fort Collins, Colo. An estimated 2,000 producers were in attendance, many of whom were R-CALF USA members.
August 31, 2010 Billings, Mont. – Each editor for BEEF magazine, Drovers and Beef Today wrote a disparaging and immensely disrespectful editorial about the joint U.S. Department of Justice/U.S. Department of Agriculture hearing in Fort Collins, Colo., on Friday, Aug. 27, 2010.
Part II: How GIPSA’s Competition Rule Disrupts Packers’ Plan to Control the Cattle Supply Chain August 25, 2010 The cattle industry is caught in a classic, catch-22 situation. It would be disastrous to limit cattle producers’ access to alternative marketing arrangements while packers continue to control timely access to the market. This is why the GIPSA Competition Rule “does not restrict limit or prohibit marketing agreements, the use of premiums, or other value-added activities.” (See USDA letter at: http://archive.gipsa.usda.gov/psp/avalosstatements.pdf.) Op-Ed by R-CALF USA President Max Thornsberry, DVM, MBA** Part I: How GIPSA’s Competition Rule Disrupts Packers’ Plan to Control the Cattle Supply Chain August 24, 2010 First, a little background…Until now, USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) made no effort to put forth regulations to implement provisions in 1921’s Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA) that prohibit packers from engaging in unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practices and granting undue preference or advantage. As a result, such anticompetitive practices are not only widespread in U.S. livestock markets, but those practices have also become institutionalized and are now viewed by many as normal business practices. August 23, 2010 Billings, Mont. – In meetings held last week in Redwood Falls, Minn., and Columbia, Mo., R-CALF USA told hundreds of Rural Americans that the historic, one-day competition workshop to be held jointly by the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will prove to be the most important day in Rural America’s history. This event begins at 8 a.m. MDT on Friday, Aug. 27, 2010, in the Main Ballroom of the Lory Student Center, located at 1101 Centre Avenue Mall on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. August 23, 2010 Washington, D.C. – In a meeting held here last week with several officials from the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice), R-CALF USA urged Justice to block the proposed acquisition of one of the largest feedlots in America, the Arizona-based McElhaney Cattle Co. (McElhaney feedlot), by the world’s largest beef packer – Brazilian-owned JBS. August 18, 2010 Billings, Mont. – R-CALF USA has learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) may consider a few changes in order to accommodate the crowd at their upcoming joint competition workshop, which is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. MDT on Friday, Aug. 27, in Fort Collins, Colo., but they would like to get a more accurate headcount by this Friday, Aug. 20, 2010, in order to reach a decision. Group Urges Rural Americans to Form Largest Crowd in U.S. History on Aug. 27 in Fort Collins, Colo., for USDA/DoJ Competition Workshop August 17, 2010 Billings, Mont. – In meetings held last week in Omaha, Neb., and in Burlington, Hugo, La Junta, and Lyman, Colo., R-CALF USA urged area cattle producers to encourage everyone in Rural America to attend the upcoming Aug. 27, 2010, competition workshop jointly hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Attendance is free and open to the public. The public and media interested in attending this event on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., should register at http://www.conferences.colostate.edu/LiveStockWorkshop. Cattle Producers, Farm Advocates Laud Senate Support of USDA’s Proposed Livestock Competition Rule August 16, 2010 Washington, D.C. – Twenty-one Senators have signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in support of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration’s (GIPSA’s) proposed livestock and poultry competition rule released in late June. Cattle producers and farm advocates who have long pressed for increased oversight of the meatpacking, hog processing and poultry integrator industries expressed support for the letter from the Senators. August 11, 2010 Billings, Mont. – In response to recent concerns expressed by members of U.S. Premium Beef (USPB) regarding the proposed competition rule (Competition Rule) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Grain Inspectors, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), R-CALF USA analyzed any potential negative impacts to USPB members and found there would be none. Is It Because They Have the Truth to Hide? NCBA, AMI, NMA Decline Opportunity for Public Debate August 11, 2010 Billings, Mont. – Monday, Aug. 9, 2010, has come and gone – to the detriment of independent U.S. cattle producers who had hoped to learn more about the state of competition in the U.S. cattle industry by attending or listening in via the Internet to a forum on that subject featuring representatives of R-CALF USA, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the American Meat Institute (AMI) and the National Meat Association (NMA).
Groups
Explain Importance of GIPSA Rule August 9, 2010 Billings, Mont. – In a cooperative effort to inform cattle ranchers about the importance of the competition rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) and the upcoming historic competition workshop scheduled for Friday, Aug. 27 in Fort Collins, Colo. by the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) and USDA, three state agricultural groups – Rocky Mountain Farmers Union (RMFU), Independent CattleGrowers of Colorado (CICA) and the Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming (ICOW) – teamed up to host five public meetings last week in Delta, Colo., Steamboat Springs, Colo., Lander Wyo., Laramie, Wyo., and Julesburg, Colo. The events featured R-CALF USA’s “Under Siege” presentation about the current state of competition in the U.S. cattle industry.
29 Groups Call for Protections Against NCBA’s Misuse of Beef Checkoff Dollars August 4, 2010 Billings, Mont. – R-CALF USA, along with several other groups, in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Phyllis K. Fong, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have formally requested urgent and decisive action to protect against misuse of National Beef Checkoff Program (Checkoff) dollars by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Group Urges Rural Americans to Participate in Upcoming Historic GIPSA/DoJ Competition Workshop in Colorado August 3, 2010 Billings, Mont. – R-CALF USA urges all independent U.S. cattle producers and everyone concerned about the future of Rural America to make time to attend the upcoming one-day, joint competition workshop hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (Justice) that begins at 8 a.m. MDT on Friday, Aug. 27, 2010, in the Main Ballroom of the Lory Student Center, located at 1101 Centre Avenue Mall on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. Rebuttal to BEEF/Kay Op-Ed on So-Called ‘Bias’ of GIPSA Administrator J. Dudley Butler July 29, 2010 Billings, Mont. - In Steve Kay’s July 23 column that appeared in the daily e-bulletin of BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly, he questions J. Dudley Butler’s impartiality as head of USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), citing Butler’s work as an attorney who handled arbitration cases for chicken growers, his status as a former R-CALF USA member, as well as being a founding member of the Organization for Competitive Markets.
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