Everyone of us has had sticker shock when we go to the grocery store….prices just keep making it harder and harder to have descent meals.
Most of us would like to know just what the government, as much as we can actually call it a ‘government’, would do to help us struggling fools.
Well wait no longer….Donny has announced his new plan….
President Trump announced Friday he would move to allow American farmers and ranchers to process their own food, hitting back against what he called the “monopoly” created by large processors.
Trump noted in a post on Truth Social that farmers and ranchers “have always been a number one priority” for him, adding that he has heard they have had an issue with big processors.
The president wrote, “There are, essentially, 4 of them, a very non competitive number, and they make life miserable for our wonderful Farmers and Ranchers, and I can’t let that happen, can I?”
“So, in order to break this powerful monopoly, with much of its ownership based outside of the U.S., I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD. This should move quickly,” he continued.
The move comes as Trump has faced backlash from ranchers as well as a number of congressional Republicans after his administration rolled out a plan to import 300,000 metric tons of tariff-free foreign ground beef over 90 days.
The critics argue that selling beef at a 25 percent discount puts downward pressure on what domestic ranches are able to charge. Additionally, industry experts say that savings from the move may not reach shoppers because of large packers and retailers getting the margin.
(thehill.com)
First the US just recalled 30K pounds of Argentine beef for improper inspection….what makes us think that the new beef will be any less unsafe?
Second, I am not a farmer or a rancher so my information and knowledge is very limited….but what does this mean? What does process their own food actually mean?
I guess the next question will be just how will that bring down food prices?
Cutting out the ‘middle man’ all that significant?
Please will someone explain this to me and my readers that are not privy to the industry.
To say that I am not too positive about this so-called plan would be an understatement….but if there is a silver lining I would like to know where.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
Ranchers and farmers do not have the facilities to store and process the food. Nor the slaughterhouses, extensive refrigeration required, transport infrastructure, packing plants, logistics warehouses, fleets of delivery trucks, marketing teams and sales teams. As usual, Trump is talking out of his arse.
Best wishes, Pete.
He will say ANYTHING in his attempts to make himself look good to his devoted (ugh) followers. And unfortunately, most of them swallow it whole.
JUst as I thought…typical bullshit…..chuq
FRUMP has NO IDEA what he is doing or the damage he has done. And he couldn’t care less
I concur….he is all about the optics and the hidden cash…..chuq
process their own food means they can cut and package their own steaks and chops and make their own bacon and sausage etc. This will inevitably cause the grab-it-all supermarkets to raise the prices on this effort with the excuse that it is fresher and more wholesome that what can be done by commercial processors. Lose-Lose all around.
Yup…but if that is true what about the safety of the products if it is processed without regulation? chuq
I’m a retired farmer so let me clarify a few things.
Everything Trump said up there is absolute, total and complete bullshit. His statement “I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow Farmers and Ranchers to be given the right to PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD.” is utter nonsense. Farmers and ranchers already can and do process and sell their own products direct to consumers and always have. There are dozens of farms here in Wisconsin that sell their own milk, sell their own beef. mutton, lamb, goat, etc. There are absolutely no government regulations preventing that. As long as the production facilities meet minimum health and safety standards and the products are properly inspected and certified by USDA any farmer can sell their own stuff to the general consumer.
So why don’t more farmers do it? What happened to the thousands of small, locally owned butcher shops that bought cattle from local farmers and sold to the local community? They are all gone because they can’t compete price-wise against the meat and dairy monopolies that control the markets in the US. The big meat packers have been colluding together for decades to drive down the price they pay to ranchers, engaging in blatant abuse of employees and fixing the prices to the consumer to maximize their profits and minimize their expenses, and to put competitors out of business. They get caught at it all the time and the only thing that happens, if anything, is that they promise to not do it again, get a token fine, and then go straight back to doing it all over again.
I was hoping you would give us the head’s up….thanx for that….we have one small butcher shop left and I frequent it as much as possible….but I figured Donny was blow hot air…..chuq
I know I should know better by this time, but even now, even after his first administration and how this one, I am still utterly amazed at how breathtakingly stupid this man and his entire adminsitration is.
It is something can baffle if you think too hard. chuq
GF is spot-on. Food processing monopolies have taken advantage of corporatization to either absorb or eliminate competition from small businesses and to maximize their profits. Once they have seized control of the markets, they can influence government regulatory oversight through political lobbying and spending. Government agencies tasked with ensuring public safety and always under cost-cutting pressures, are all-too eager to cooperate with these industrial monopolies because it simply makes their jobs easier.
The net effect is a massive transfer of wealth and power to large and often transnational corporations, the corruption of democratic governance, and the subordination of small business and consumers.
Blaming the “middleman” is a convenient political trope, but it doesn’t address this larger more complex story. In uncomplicated economic systems (which don’t really exist anymore on any sort of large scale), middlemen can serve a beneficial purpose. Think of an experienced factory or ranch foreman who efficiently runs an operation, or a skilled craftsman who transforms raw materials into useful products.
We desperately need to rebuild local economies, but we must tear down the global corporatist system first. Let’s get the corrupting influence of big money out of politics and reconnect government with the people.
It was just easier for Donny to blame the middle man….takes no thought at all….I agree but that will take will and so far there is not much of that these days. chuq
this exactly. We need a return of the Trust Busters of the early 1900s to break up these monopolies, and a Congress that isn’t made up of sniveling cowards who can pass laws to prevent this from happening in the future. The system we have now serves only to funnel ever increasing amounts of money into the pockets of an ever dwindling number of oligarchs at the expense of the rest of us.
“sniveling cowards’ is the best description I can think of…..chuq
The Hollywood producers of a future biographical movie about Donald Trump might seriously consider the title: “One Pathetic Dog-and-Pony Show After Another”…
I like it….how about a title like “Brain Farts Administration”? chuq