This week (May 19, 2021), U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) and U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called attention to a food crisis in America. In a comprehensive bipartisan letter, the senators succinctly described the anatomy of the nation’s food crisis marked by consumers paying an unnecessary, over-inflated price for beef in the store while the nation’s cattle ranchers and farmers are on the verge of going broke.
The letter explains that if Congress does not take immediate action, current policies will “cause the demise of the American rancher and American consumers will be forced to pay a higher price for a much lower quality product.”
The letter attributes the crisis to a failed marketing structure in which the middlemen have a stranglehold over both consumers and ranchers.
Following a Facebook Live event held yesterday, the ranch group R-CALF USA launched an urgent, nationwide drive to get 200 members of Congress, from both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, to join with Senators Rounds and Smith by adding their name to the bipartisan letter within the next 10 days.
“The most important step consumers and cattle producers can do today is to share this senate letter with their own senators and representative and get them to sign on,” said Brett Kenzy, a rancher and director of R-CALF USA.
Kenzy said there have been many joint letters circulated by Congress, but not since the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 – exactly 100 years ago – has there been a more important letter than this one. “This letter describes the crisis so clearly that representatives of both consumers and ranchers will immediately understand that they must join the bipartisan letter to reverse the crisis before it gets any worse.”
Kenzy said he encourages every consumer and every cattle producer to put this bipartisan letter into the hands of each of their congressional members and to get their commitment to put an end to this serious crisis that affects everyone. Congressional members can join the letter by contacting the office of either Rounds or Smith.
The public can check to see if their members of Congress have joined the bipartisan letter by going to the R-CALF USA Website at www.r-calfusa.com, which will be updated daily.
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