The Livestock Marketing Association (LMA) recently convened a convention of cattle producer and farmer organizations to discuss the challenges involved in finished cattle marketing. The results of bringing together The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), National Cattlemen’s Beef Association ({NCBA), National Farmers Union (NFU), R-CALF USA, and United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) were the following action items:

Expedite the renewal of USDA’s Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR).
Demand the Department of Justice (DOJ) issue a public investigation status report and as warranted, conduct joint DOJ and USDA oversight of packer activity
- Encourage investment in, and development of, new independent, local and regional packers.

In his May 24, 2021, edition of Cattle Buyer’s Weekly (CBW), Steve Kay reported that “the group talked openly and candidly about a wide range of important issues facing the industry including but not limited to packer concentration, price transparency and discovery, packer oversight, Packers and Stockyards Act enforcement and the level of captive supply and packer capacity.”

However, the word “consumer” nor any reference to the final arbiters of beef demand — those who consume it — was not mentioned nor referenced anywhere in the CBW report nor in the May 17, 2021, industry press release of the meeting’s results.

Such a navel-gazing attitude on the part of the leading cattle producer and farmer organizations is a myopic view of the critical component to the marketing of finished cattle —a.k.a. beef — and its future growth. The sum of their discussions revolved around the inconsistencies and inequities of government oversight of cattle and feed production with nary a mention of beef marketing. While this may seem like a logical discussion by producer/farmer groups, it is a distortion of the most important beef marketing issues and remedies, as if they were looking through the wrong end of a telescope.

It seems to me that a gathering of the industry’s major raw material (cattle and feed) producing groups should have at a minimum addressed consumer issues such as declining consumption of the industry’s one and only product, beef. They should have at least discussed how to combat the market incursion of plant-based faux “meats” (PBMs) that is growing in share at the expense of beef. Or was this meeting simply a producer get-together to salve their collective grievances about how the government is not properly protecting their rights/interests?

In my view, any meeting of these disparate parts of the cattle-beef industry continuum should begin with a review of current consumer beef needs and how those from farms and ranches to retail can work together to meet those needs.

If LMA calls this group together again, here are my suggestions for meeting topics to be discussed resulting in actionable items to be implemented by the attendees:

Declining beef consumption due to:
- PBMs — The plant-based meat marketers have pinned their hopes on a message of environmental destruction caused by animal agriculture. To effectively combat this, the beef industry must first develop cause cures for the environment they impact and then broadcast these positive results.
- Climate change concerns — This issue is going to be top of mind for at least the next three and a half years. The beef industry must develop its responses and how they’re to be implemented to take away the fear that cattle are a major climate change cause.
Nutritional issues and how beef answers them — Beef is a nutrient-dense food, but in the consumer’s mind, eating beef pales in comparison when juxtaposed to consuming plants. This must be dispelled with facts.
Government impinging actions and what to do about them — If DOJ or USDA impinges on the agreed-upon consumer action issues or precursors to those actions, then it is proper that such grievances be addressed in a loud enough voice to show that the producer’s livelihood and ability to service consumers’ needs are severely and negatively impacted by such encroachments. And just as importantly, the producer groups must offer reasonable remedies, thus not leaving any issue unsaid nor unresolved. This leaves the government little option but to accept, reject or modify the actions, but at the very least consider them rather than pass them off as simply an industry groups’ lamentation of impending doom without justification nor proposed remedies.

The wrong focus for a cattle producer/farmer convention

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