NAFB – As the Senate Agriculture Committee focused on potential cattle market manipulation Wednesday, R-CALF USA says concentration and globalization are the core problems. Separate from the committee hearing, R-CALF submitted comments to USDA this week responding to a request for input on transforming America’s food system.

R-CALF, short for The Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America, points out four multinational beef packers control 85 percent of the fed cattle market and 80 percent of the boxed beef market. The comments explain, “they have now consolidated their control over both the supply side and demand side.” To address this, R-CALF’s first recommendation for reversing the effects of globalization is to require all beef sold in America to be labeled with a country-of-origin label. Doing so, R-CALF says, consumers can begin making purchasing choices between foreign beef and domestic beef.

The comments include nearly 30 separate recommendations to strengthen the domestic cattle and beef supply chains.