Agricultural News
R-CALF Calls on USDA and DOJ to Examine Tyson's FarmCheck Audit Program
Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:29:35 CDT
The following is a news release from R-CALF USA:
Tyson Foods, Inc., the nation's largest corporate meatpacker, recently announced it will impose its new "FarmCheck"audit program on more than 12,000 independent U.S. livestock and poultry farmers and ranchers. According to Tyson's news release, its "FarmCheck" audit program will enable the mega-corporation to add valuable marketing information to its meat products sold to consumers - Tyson will use its unilateral power to audit operations on private farms and ranches and oversee everything from breeding to harvest.
Tyson ultimately intends to provide consumers with assurance that their food is being produced in accordance with Tyson's standards.
"Where else but in a monopoly-controlled market can a corporation infringe on the private property rights of independent farmers and ranchers to extract valuable marketing information without having to pay a dime?" asked R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.
Tyson is estimated to control more than one-fourth of the nearly 85 percent of the nation's steer and heifer slaughter controlled by only four mega-corporations.
"That means in many regional cattle markets where U.S. cattle feeders have only Tyson and one other buyer for their cattle, those cattle feeders will be forced to capitulate to Tyson's command-and-control FarmCheck audit program or face the consequences of having only one remaining buyer and no competition for their cattle," Bullard continued.
Bullard explained that Tyson's new program is nothing but a means by which the mega-corporation can exert its muscle to violate the privacy of hard-working, independent family farm and ranch cattle producers; extract from those independent family cattle producers valuable marketing information at no cost; and then charge consumers a premium price for the information it has extracted for free.
"If Tyson wants this valuable marketing information, it should offer a premium to family farmers and ranchers who wish to participate. But, Tyson knows it possesses monopolistic power in the U.S. cattle market and it is brazenly exercising its monopolistic power to exploit independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers.
"We are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Justice to immediately investigate Tyson's FarmCheck before it goes into effect to determine if it violates U.S. antitrust laws and the Packers and Stockyards Act by eliminating choices and competition for independent U.S. farmers and ranchers," concluded Bullard.
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