To consumers, it looks like a pretty open market. That's partly because of a long-term change mostly hidden from public view in the structure of the beef industry. That's 40% less than there were in the 1980s. But there are half a million fewer ranching families now. Ranchers like Jeanie are so integral to the western United States, they're indistinguishable from it. More than 130 years.ĪLDERSON: Ranching is what this community is, and it's who we are.ĬHAKRABARTI: She's wondering, though, how long will it stay that way? Ever since Jeanie took over the family business, she's seen things change, and rapidly.ĪLDERSON: You know, when I was growing up, there were two little grocery stores in this town, and now all you can buy in Birney is a stamp.ĬHAKRBARTI: This is On Point. Wonderful grasslands, but it's dry.ĬHAKRABARTI: Jeanie's family has owned the Bones Brothers Ranch since 1889. This is the high northern plains kind of terrain. It's at the confluence of two creeks, which is really special, that means we've got water. She grew up in that tiny town, Birney, in southeastern Montana.ĪLDERSON: We're on our ranch today. (Credit: Northern Plains Resource Council)ĬHAKRABARTI: Jeanie Alderson is a fourth generation rancher. JEANIE ALDERSON: In a state like Montana, there's more cows than people. The only business in town is the Post Office.
MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: There's a small Montana town that's as small as it gets, population 110 to be exact. Sarah Little, spokeswoman for the North American Meat Institute, a Washington lobbying group representing packers and processors.Īaron Metz, fourth generation rancher from the Badlands of Western North Dakota. Member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, a grassroots conservation and family agriculture group. Jeanie Alderson, fourth generation rancher from Birney, Montana. Author of the Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America and editor of Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America.( Also Featured His organization is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that accuses meatpackers of manipulating prices.Ĭlaire Kelloway, program manager for fair food and farming systems at the Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit anti-monopoly organization. Guestsīill Bullard, head of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, an advocacy group.
#The cattle industry became big business series
Today, On Point: A discussion on monopolies and meat processing kicks off our special series More than money: The cost of monopolies in America. "It's failed consumers on one end of the supply chain, and it's failed the American family farmer and rancher on the other," Bullard says. "You have cattle ranchers going broke while consumers are paying all-time record prices for beef," Bill Bullard, head of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, says. They dominate many industries, including beef. Find Part II here.Ĭorporate monopolies exercise a lot of power in U.S. This is Part I of our series More than money: The cost of monopolies in America. (Credit: Northern Plains Resource Council)
Jeanie Alderson, a 4th generation rancher from Birney, Montana.
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