For Immediate Release: August 4, 2023
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that discusses the mindset among politicians that must be changed in order to reestablish profitable opportunities for U.S. cattle and sheep producers. It is in three formats: written, audio and video. Anyone is welcome to use it for broadcasting or reporting.
Hard to Move a Mountain
Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA
Everyone knows mountains are hard to move; but everyone also knows that with enough time and the right equipment, it’s not impossible to move a mountain…it’s just hard. But what if that mountain you want to move is a mindset deeply engrained in the psyche of our political leaders?
Well, that mountain is hard to move as well but, again, it’s not impossible. It just takes time and the right message.
So, what is it that is so deeply engrained in the psyche of our political leaders that we must now move?
It has two parts: First is the belief in globalization…that there should be one set of rules that every nation abides by to achieve a borderless world when it comes to trade, free trade that is.
Now the free trade mindset essentially says that the production of a good should take place in the region of the world that maintains a comparative advantage. And in the case of livestock that would mean anywhere in the world where cattle and sheep can be produced cheapest and most efficiently – say where grass grows year-round, and that’s where cattle and beef and sheep and lamb should be produced and then exported worldwide.
And for regions of the world, say the United States, that are producing cattle and beef under perhaps more expensive and arguably less efficient conditions, well it should simply divert whatever resources were used for the production of cattle and sheep into some new endeavor for which the United States could achieve a comparative advantage.
But don’t laugh, this is the driver behind free trade, and as fanciful as this sounds now, this is what our political leaders have believed for decades.
Now the second deeply engrained thing we must move is the notion that the U.S. must lead the world by its example. In other words, even if no other nation believes in free trade; or, if like China, they simply refuse to play by any rules, our U.S. politicians have long believed the U.S. must lead the world by example and adhere, at any cost, to this fantastical free-trade notion.
We ran headlong into this in the early 2000s when we filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for trying to relax our BSE or mad cow restrictions. We kept the U.S.-Canadian border closed to the importation of high-risk Canadian cattle for over two years. But the USDA said the U.S. policy is open borders and that it needs to lead by example to accept some risk so other countries would agree to accept our exports in the event of a future U.S. outbreak. Who was right? Well, our position harbored the least risk, and we really don’t know what the real risk is given that the incubation of BSE in humans is believed to take up to 40 years or longer.
But more recently, we met with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and asked that he temporarily ban beef imports from Brazil due to Brazil’s food safety problems over the past several years and its failure to provide timely notifications about cattle detected with BSE.
The Secretary said he wouldn’t do that, citing the need for the United States to abide by its global obligations and to lead the rest of the world by example.
So, we changed the subject and asked the Secretary to reconsider U.S. trade policies that have already destroyed our commercial sheep industry as evidenced by the fact that over 70% of the lamb consumed in America is now imported causing U.S. consumers to be dependent on foreign supply chains for this important protein. We said the cattle industry is on the same course…that domestic producers have suffered years of low cattle prices in part due to lower-cost, undifferentiated imports and unless relief is granted the U.S. will continue losing its cattle farmers and ranchers.
The response was nearly the same: that trade was important, that the U.S. has to lead by example, and besides, not all cattle associations share our opinion that imports need to be regulated in order to create opportunities for the domestic cattle industry.
Two things are abundantly clear: First, not enough time has passed to move this mountain, so we need to keep fighting. Second, our message must change some to reflect the fact that we want the United States to lead by example, but not as an example of holding up a failed free trade ideal.
Instead, we want the United States to demonstrate how nations can use country of origin labels, tariffs, and tariff rate quotas to ensure fair trade, and to ensure that the United States and other nations can achieve their food security goals by protecting their domestic family farm and ranch systems of agriculture so they can continue producing an abundant, wholesome, and affordable food supply for their citizens.
And, yes, we’re going to need your help! So please call your members of Congress and let them know that the era of globalization is over.
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R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary educates and informs both consumers and producers about timely issues important to the U.S. cattle and sheep industries and rural America.
Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information visit www.r-calfusa.com or call (406) 252-2516.
