JAN. 29-FEB. 4, 2024 SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 27 I’m still catching up that it’s 2024 – how about you? Imagine my surprise then when national news coverage of the Iowa caucuses began earlier this month. Ready or not, the calendar has turned and it’s that time again – this presidential election year is off and running. Of course, every year provides an opportunity to cast a vote. While it seems many reserve the term election year for every four years, consequential candidate races and issues appear annually on the ballot. As the national news media keys in on the race for the nation’s top executive office, closer to home, Springfield Business Journal is joining an effort to focus on local candidate races. The Informed Voter Coalition is a 13-member nonpartisan group with the goal of educating voters and engaging candidates with citizens. Volunteers from the coalition are currently meeting to organize efforts around candidate interviews for the April school board races in Nixa, Ozark, Springfield and Willard. The coalition prioritizes equity in the process – all candidates will be asked the same questions and be allotted the same amount of time to answer; questions are not provided in advance, and no organization involved in the coalition will provide endorsement or support for the candidates. We believe this unbiased and simple approach will inform voters’ choices when they head to the polls in a little over two months. It’s an opportunity to hear straight from the candidates, unfiltered and raw, and to learn where they stand on issues pertinent to the office they seek. The nonpartisan members crafting the questions, conducting the interviews and sharing the content are: Be Civil Be Heard, Drury University’s L.E. Meador Center for Politics & Citizenship, Junior League of Springfield, KSMU Ozarks Public Radio, Leadership Springfield, League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri, Missouri State University’s Office of Public Affairs, Ozarks Technical Community College’s Social Sciences Department, Rosie, Springfield Business Journal, Springfield-Greene County Library District, Springfield NAACP and Springfield News-Leader. During the week of March 18 over the noon hour, tune into local NPR-affiliate KSMU at 91.1 FM to hear school board candidate interviews. As they air, SBJ.net will publish the full video interviews prepared by the News-Leader free to all readers, along with excerpts from the interviews in a March print edition. I’ve admired the work of the Informed Voter Coalition from afar since its 2019 inception and last year asked the group to discuss adding SBJ to its ranks. The mission of the group closely aligns with our mission. For nearly 45 years, SBJ staff has taken pride in publishing relevant content for our business community. News content that is trustworthy, unbiased and informative at its core has never been more critical as misinformation is becoming easier to mask as real, and divisiveness is turning people off to leaning into important issues. Initial evidence from a 2023 Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report finds news interest and news trust are rebounding in the U.S. after significant drops last year. According to the study, 73% of respondents report accessing news at least once per day, up 6 percentage points from the previous year, while interest in news has recovered slightly, and trust rebounded by 6 percentage points after last year’s lows. But still, the study reports news avoidance remains prevalent. A Pew Research Center study backs that up – with only 38% of adults saying they follow news all or most of the time. That’s down 13 percentage points since 2016. In studies I’ve read, the consensus is local news often bucks these trends and has a higher degree of trust among consumers. I’m betting on that for our work as a member of the Informed Voter Coalition in bringing you information as you head to the polls in April. I believe the work of providing trustworthy news has never been more important. At the same time, it’s never been more important for voters to lean in to engage with the issues and races. Decisions made today affect our community and businesses tomorrow. It’s our goal to empower voters with education. After that, we leave the responsibility with you to take to the ballot box. Springfield Business Journal Executive Editor Christine Temple can be reached at ctemple@sbj.net. SBJ joins voter education coalition to serve readers Dear editor, In 2022, the Department of Agriculture reports the United States imported 3.4 billion pounds of boxed beef and 1.6 million live cattle. Through August 2023, the U.S. imported 20% more beef than we exported, according to an analysis by FarmProgress.com. In the U.S., meatpackers and traders can take imported beef and repackage it with a label that reads “Product of the United States.” Now, do I have your attention? It has been nearly two years since the largest corporate meatpackers were called before Congress to testify about excessive corporate consolidation in the meat industry, increased prices for consumers, low prices for producers and record profits for themselves. Today, because of corporate consolidation coupled with widespread drought, the cattle herd is at its lowest numbers since 1962. In 1980, the top four meatpackers controlled just 36% of the U.S. beef supply, and the U.S. had 1.3 million cattle operations, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. In 2017, the top four meatpackers controlled 85% of beef production and the number of U.S. cattle operations dropped to 711,827. With historically high consumer prices, it would make sense that cattle producers are enjoying good profits, but increased prices for consumers don’t translate back to increased prices for cattle producers like me and others in southwest Missouri. The price of food is a main driver of inflation, and meat prices rose more than almost anything with a 12.3% increase in a 12-month period ending in May 2022, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. During a similar period, Brazilian-based JBS SA (OTCMKTS: JBSAY) reported a record profit of $4.4 billion for the 12-month period ending in March 2022 – a 70% increase, Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) showed a record $4.1 billion net profit – an increase of 91%, and family-owned Cargill Inc.’s fiscal year ending on May 2021 showed a record $4.9 billion in net income – up 60% over the previous 12 months. Another Brazilian company, Marfrig (owner of National Beef), showed a profit of $820.1 million, its largest ever. This example vividly shows how hyper concentration in markets, especially food markets, is harmful to consumers and producers alike. These same meatpackers also successfully lobbied to abolish mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for meat. COOL was passed in the 2008 Farm Bill, and, following its implementation in 2013, cow/calf producers saw an increase in the value of their product until topping out in late 2014/early 2015 with a profit of $518 per calf, according to USDA statistics. Needless to say, the global meatpackers didn’t like COOL. Along with their allies, including the North American Meat Institute and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, they successfully challenged COOL under the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the World Trade Organization ruled that the U.S. COOL law was illegal under our “free trade” laws. In 2015, Congress repealed COOL and cow/calf producer profits dropped by 30%, the largest oneyear drop in history. In 2014, a 100-head cow herd produced $51,800 income for the cow/calf producer. In 2021, comparing my personal transaction records, that same 100-head herd only netted $9,719. Fast forward to 2023 – with two years of drought, a lack of feed and farmers liquidating herds – feeder calves hit record high prices in September of $268 per every 100 pounds, i.e. hundredweight, yet that price dropped quickly by $42 per hundredweight, or 15%, in just two months. That means producers’ profit for their calves dropped $200 a head. The price for a pound of beef has risen to a record $8 per pound while at the same time cow/calf producers are making 14% less than what they did in 2014. The demand is still there, but the supply isn’t, so why are prices for cattle going down? One key reason is because control over the meat industry and our food markets is so concentrated that meatpackers are able to control prices for the consumer and producer alike. Just like we blame corporate control of markets, we should also blame corporate control of Congress, who should be working to level the field for producers and consumers. For example, Congress should pass the American Beef Labeling Act (SB 52) bringing back mandatory labeling, encourage the USDA to update regulations to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act and create a Special Investigator (SB 346) that would prioritize antitrust enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act. One more thing: Congress can pass Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s 50/14 bill requiring packers to buy 50% of their daily supply from the open market and harvest the animals within 14 days, creating competition and making a step to balance out the market. Call your congressional representative if you agree. —Darvin Bentlage, Lawrence County and a member of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center TRUTH BE TOLD Christine Temple OPINION WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Springfield Business Journal welcomes responses from readers. Letters to the editor should be brief, preferably under 300 words, and may be edited for clarity, style and length. No anonymous letters will be printed. Send letters to sbj@sbj.net. Please include your full name and the city where you reside. Unpacking beef industry’s smoke, mirrors Letter to the Editor
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