Welcome to the Friday edition of the HOT BARN REPORT
Heard ONLY on American radio stations across the nation and online at hotbarnreport.com!
Karina Jones, Field Director for R-Calf USA joins us each Friday from her ranch in the heart of Nebraska covering new and important cattle industry news and policy.
Not Mine! Welcome to this special Friday Edition of Hot Barn Report!
Please tell me that I am not the only one who cleans out their car or pickup to find 43 partially drank bottles of water. When I ask my kids, “Whose are these?” I emphatically get the same answer, “Not mine!” I didn’t even know that I have a child named, “Not Mine.”
I feel like I get the same answer from government officials when I ask, “whose job is it to enforce the law?” Their actions and reactions seem to always say, “not mine.”
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Federal Trade Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya on the R-CALF Round Up Podcast. You can find this interview on all podcast platforms including R-CALF social media sites. The FTC enforces federal competition and consumer protection laws that prevent anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices.
But there is a catch! As commissioner Bedoya explains in this podcast, Congress stripped the FTC of oversight over the meat packing industry in 1921. Apparently, the FTC was getting a little too close for comfort to hammering down on some anti-trust enforcement. I was fascinated by this fact and had to ask if anywhere else in history had Congress stripped the FTC of enforcement power of laws. The only other time he could recall was a few decades ago when the powerful sugar lobby worked to back the FTC off of the regulations they were wanting to impose on children’s TV advertising of sugary cereals.
So, the agency that according to their website is to enforce competition and consumer protection laws that prevent deceptive and unfair business practices can’t touch MCOOL which seems to be the most deceptive consumer issue of them all right now! So, I asked Commission Bedoya, “Whose job is it to enforce the laws in regard to the meat packing industry?” His response was the USDA and DOJ are to be the enforcers over the meat packing industry!
So why does the USDA, who has oversight over the “Product of USA” label on beef continue to allow beef from other countries to use this label? I’m not a consumer fraud lawyer, but that would strike me as a deceptive consumer practice. The USDA and DOJ seem to run from their responsibility to prevent anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices as it relates to the meat packing industry, when it is squarely in their court! Government agencies need to answer to and be held accountable by Congress and the American people. I would say right now is a good time to start making that happen! No more playing, “not mine!”
Let’s give a shout out to the “Diamond Dozen” Hot Barns that support the American cattle industry: Stockmens livestock, Lemmon livestock, North Platte Stockyards, St. Onge/Newell, Platte Livestock Market, Tri County Stockyards, Torrington Livestock, Creighton Livestock Market, Bassett Livestock Auction, Mobridge Livestock, Ogallala Livestock Auction Market, and Presho Livestock. Catch them all on CattleUSA.com.
This Week on CattleUSA.com
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🔥St. Onge Livestock & Newell Sheep Yards – Feeders, yearlings and weigh-ups FRIDAY & Sheep THURSDAY
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🔥Platte Livestock Market – Hogs, Sheep & Goats on MONDAY & Feeders on WEDNESDAY
🔥Creighton Livestock Market – Feeder Calf Sale TUESDAY
🔥Bassett Livestock Auction – WEDNESDAY Sales
🔥North Platte Stockyards – Sales on TUESDAY
🔥Ogallala Livestock Auction Market – Sales on WEDNESDAY
🔥Lemmon Livestock – Sales on WEDNESDAY
🔥Mobridge Livestock – Sales on TUESDAY & THURSDAY
🔥Presho Livestock Auction – Sales on THURSDAY & MONTHLY horse sale
🔥Torrington Livestock – Sales on FRIDAY
🔥Buy ’em up online at CattleUSA.com
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