The American beef industry has long been a target of the environmentalists and their allies in the animal rights movement for some time. To understand the reason is to know that protecting the environment is not the goal, rather the excuse in a determined drive for global power. Their selected tactic is to control the land, water, energy, and population of the Earth. To achieve these ends requires, among other things, the destruction of private property rights and elimination of every individual’s ability to make personal lifestyle choices, including personal diet.
The current solution to “fix” the beef industry is “sustainable certification,” which requires that growers follow a few simple rules laid out by the World Wildlife Fund, the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the US Department of Agriculture, all acting in accordance with the United Nations’ Agenda 21.
According to these so-called environmental experts, there are good reasons why the meat industry must meet sustainable standards. Farm animals require more land than crops to produce food. The World Hunger Program calculated that if the land was used to grow grain and soy it could provide a vegan diet to 6 billion people. Cattle ranchers use much more water than crop farms, produce more waste, use massive amounts of energy, overgraze pastureland and cause soil erosion, ad nauseam.
And let’s not forget the Green Over-Lords favorite argument for ridding the earth of cows – flatulence. A single dairy cow, they claim, produces an average of 75 kilos of methane annually. Returning the land to historic species like buffalo, deer, elk, wild sheep will not save the planet. These wild animals graze on the same grass as cattle and therefore produce methane so I’m not exactly sure how that argument works.
And, of course, there is always the same scare tactic of a world-wide food shortage or pending famine that requires we cut back on meat consumption and covert grazing lands to food crops. Doesn’t matter that there is no world-wide food shortage or pending famine. In fact, the lap-dog media is persistently reporting “price depressing crop surpluses.” The only places where such shortages may exist are in totalitarian societies where government is controlling food production and supplies – kind of like the Green’s plan for sustainable beef.
And if you don’t fall for their starvation theory how about the obesity claim where people’s consumption of meat combined with environmental pollution and lack of exercise is leading to strokes, cancer, diabetes and heart attacks. But shouldn’t that be a good thing for those who believe the world is overpopulated?
Unfortunately, to bring the cattle industry into line with this world view the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has accepted the imposition of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which is heavily influenced, if not controlled, by the World Wildlife Fund, one of the top three most powerful environmental organizations in the world and a leader in the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), which basically sets the rules for global environmental policy.
To follow the sustainable rules and be officially certified, the cattle growers must agree to have much of the use of their land reduced to provide for wildlife habitat. There are strict controls over water use and grazing areas. This forces the growers to have smaller herds, making the process more expensive and economically unviable for the industry. In addition, there is a new layer of industry and government inspectors, creating a massive bureaucratic overreach, causing yet more costs for the growers and consumers.
The Roundtable rules are enforced through the packing companies who dictate the rules to the feed lots to comply with sustainable certification for cattle they buy. If you don’t participate with the U.N., they just won’t buy your cattle.
There are only four main packing companies in the United States – Cargill, Tysons, JBS and Marfrig which have already successfully taken control of the hog and poultry industries. Tysons is now raising its chickens in China to ship to the U.S. JBS and Marfrig are both from Brazil.
It’s interesting to note that one of their first tactics was to remove the country of origin labeling from the packaging so that consumers have no idea where their product is coming from. So as the packers force their expensive, unnecessary, and unworkable sustainable certification on American cattlemen, they are systematically bringing in cheaper products from other countries that don’t necessarily adhere to strict, sanitary, safe production American producers are known for. As a result, there is a noticeable rise in news reports of recalls of diseased chicken and beef in American grocery stores.
A group of cattlemen organized under the banner of R-CALF (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund) is trying to fight back and have successful slowed the Sustainable capture of the industry. But the packers’ control of the industry is a major roadblock if the cattlemen can’t reach their market. R-CALF has filed Abuse of Conduct suits to shed light on the anti-trust activities of the monopoly tactics of the packers.
The beef industry can’t recover on its own – they need our help. If you’re tired of paying higher prices for inferior meat and meat products, if you’re tired of worrying about the danger of hidden disease in the products you buy, if you want the right to your own food choices instead of the dictatorship of the Green Over-Lords, get mad – fight back. Demand that the County of Origin labels be put on all meat products so you know what you are buying. Demand that the Department of Agriculture reject this sustainable myth and protect the American free market that has always provided superior products.
The so-called sustainable policy is not a free market. It is a government-sanctioned monopoly that is just short of a criminal enterprise. Stand with American farmers and cattlemen. If Americans don’t fight back now we will lose the freedom to our own dinner plates in the name of sustainable lies.
Source: The Growing Drive To Destroy The Beef Industry, Tom DeWeese, President, Amerian Policy Center, Conservative HQ
