“U.S. beef producers need to stop whining and just lower prices.”
That’s not analysis—it’s exactly the kind of ignorance the meatpackers count on.
But behind every overpriced steak is a rigged cartel—and behind every bankrupt ranch is a family trying to survive a system designed to erase them.
Farmers now face a suicide rate 3.5x higher than the national average.
Let’s talk about why.
This Isn’t a Supply Chain. It’s a Global Cartel.
The Big Four—Tyson, JBS, Cargill, National Beef—aren’t just dominant. They’re a syndicate.
Controlling 85% of fed cattle slaughter, they dictate prices, suppress competition, and extract profits from every level of the food chain.
Meanwhile, ranchers keep less than 35% of the beef dollar—down from 60% in 1980. The U.S. cattle herd sits at a 70-year low. Consumers pay record prices. Ranchers lose money per head.
And Brazil’s JBS—backed by corruption charges, Amazon deforestation, and laundered cattle—just keeps growing. In 2025, they’re still flooding U.S. shelves under a bullsh*t “Product of USA” label.
Futures Rigged, Retail Captured
In 2019, R-CALF USA sued the packers for rigging futures markets and cutting slaughter capacity to suppress prices.
By 2025, JBS paid $83.5M to settle.
In 2022, they paid another $52.5M.
Tyson’s SEC filings admit ongoing antitrust exposure.
No one broke them up. They paid. They moved on.
The squeeze continues.
WTO: Where Sovereignty Goes to Die
The repeal of MCOOL in 2015 wasn’t market-driven. It was WTO-enforced.
The U.S. folded under foreign pressure—and now Brazilian beef from cartel-linked suppliers gets labeled “USA” in your grocery aisle.
Wikileaks cables confirm: U.S. trade officials pushed arbitration to favor multinationals as early as 1973. Sovereignty was sold off to save face in Geneva.
In 2025, with screwworm outbreaks 400 miles from Texas, the border was reopened anyway.
Checkoff: Ranchers Funding Their Own Collapse
Through the $1/head Beef Checkoff Program, small producers are forced to fund the same lobbying groups that prop up the cartel.
NCBA was caught misusing over $216,000 in Checkoff funds, according to a 2014 USDA audit. And in 2017, the GAO warned that USDA oversight remains too weak to stop it from happening again.
Opting out? Not an option. This is taxation without representation—on a per-cow basis.
Enforcement? A Joke.
The Packers and S tockyards Act? Barely enforced.
DOJ antitrust probes? Settled and shelved.
USDA wage investigations? Ongoing.
The packers play both sides of the agency table. Regulators blink.
Sound Money, Real Beef
“People don’t realize how much capital it takes to run a ranch. $10,000 doesn’t even get you started in this industry. But with Bitcoin, I had a tool that allowed me to invest in my operation on my terms,”
That’s how Cole Bolton, a Texas rancher and Beef Initiative founder, puts it.
At the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, the Beef Initiative lays it bare:
Inflation isn’t just killing your savings—it’s killing rural food systems.
As the Fed prints dollars, input costs surge, margins collapse, and ranchers get boxed out.
No subsidy can offset monetary sabotage.
Sound money—whether Bitcoin or gold—means local control.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t about price. It’s about control.
Fix the money, fix the food, fix the country.
The cartel won’t stop—but you can opt out.
Buy Rancher Direct Certified℠ beef from real American ranchers at BeefMaps.com.
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