posted on
July 17, 2023
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🧩 “Who Controls Your Beef?” 🥩 The Big Four: 85% of America’s Beef Controlled by 4 Companies 💬 “When just four companies process most of the beef in our country, we don’t just lose competition — we lose connection.” — Liz Cunningham Panel 1: The Players ProcessorOwnership% of MarketKnown ForJBS USABrazil (JBS S.A.)~25%Largest meat processor in the world; ransomware attack 2021 shut down 20% of U.S. meat supplyTyson FoodsU.S.~22%COVID shutdowns led to mass cattle backlogs; ongoing price-fixing litigationCargill Meat SolutionsU.S.~22%Commodity-driven global agribusiness; joint settlements for antitrust violationsNational Beef (Marfrig Global Foods)Brazil~18%Foreign-owned; major importer/exporter balancing U.S. beef and South American supply 📊 Together: 85–87% of all beef processed in the United States Panel 2: The Hidden Costs 💵 Price Control: Coordinated market behavior drives rancher profits down and retail prices up. 🥩 Supply Risk: When one major plant shuts down — like JBS in 2021 — U.S. beef supply can drop 20% overnight. 🌎 Foreign Influence: Two of the four are Brazilian-owned, meaning U.S. beef production decisions are made overseas. 🐄 Lost Independence: Family ranchers can’t compete with massive volume pricing. Processing access becomes bottlenecked. Panel 3: The COVID Reality Check 🚫 Plant shutdowns → millions of pounds of cattle euthanized 🍽️ Empty grocery shelves → record-high prices 🤝 Small processors couldn’t expand due to USDA red tape “It’s not the cow. It’s the how. Our food system isn’t broken — it’s bottlenecked.” — Liz Cunningham Panel 4: What We’re Doing Differently At Cunningham Ranch & Northwest Premium Meats: Locally processed beef from Jordan Valley, Oregon/Treasure Valley, Idaho USDA inspected, small-batch handled Full traceability from pasture to plate Dollars stay local — supporting Northwest families - Cliff's Country Market is now the home of Cunningham Pastured Meats💚 Food You Can Trust — From Families Who Care Panel 5: What You Can Do 🛒 Buy Local Beef — direct from ranchers and small butchers and locally owned family markets like Cliff's Country Market in Caldwell, ID 🗣️ Ask Questions — know who raised and processed your meat 🤝 Support Legislation — like the PRIME Act that gives small processors freedom 🍽️ Share the Story — because change starts around the dinner table 📍 Learn More at CunninghamPasturedMeats.com
🌾 How Grazing Got Complicated Back in the early 1900s, before federal oversight, ranchers and homesteaders often clashed over access to grazing land. By the 1930s, the BLM was formed to manage who could graze and where. Then came the 1960s — and with it, new fencing requirements, reduced grazing allotments (AUMs, or Animal Unit Months), and tighter federal restrictions. But, this isn't just a difference of opinion, this becomes a "heated" debate when fires are not well managed and threaten our lands and the solution is rooted in good stewardship of the land as nature intended.
For decades, the New World Screwworm was an agricultural success story — a pest eradicated through science and persistence. But now, it’s back in the headlines… and back on ranchers’ minds.
