University of Arkansas Reports on Cattle Market After Receiving Millions from Tyson Foods
Don Tyson of Tyson Foods receives his Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater. By 2011 he and his Corporation had donated $27 million to the University of Arkansas.
By Jim Mundorf
Unfortunately in today’s day and age, looking at where information comes from is often more important than the actual information being reported. The perfect example of this is the recent report published in Drovers Magazine. The report is an economic study done by the University of Arkansas on the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2021. This is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate that will force beef packers to actually bid against each other on more cattle, something they do not want to do. So, surprise, surprise the University of Arkansas says that this bill will do nothing for cattle producers and will not have an impact on cattle pricing. The reason this is not a surprise, is that Arkansas is home to the largest meat packer in the U.S. Tyson Foods, and over the years the University has received millions upon millions of dollars in donations from the Tyson Foods Foundation.
Million$ upon Million$
When I first saw the report, I put two and two together and did a quick Google search of, “Tyson Foods Foundation University of Arkansas.” From the first five results I came up 16.3 million dollars recently given to the University from Tyson Foods. The most recent being $300,000 in May of 2021. The sixth search result was an article on the University website in remembrance of Don Tyson. It describes what a wonderful guy he was, and oh by the way, at the time of his passing in 2011, “the personal, corporate and foundation gifts made under the Tyson name totaled more than $27 million.” The fact that a beef packer is a major source of funding for the school kinda makes you wonder if their report might be just a little bit biased. So why, out of all the Universities out there, was the University of Arkansas chosen to analyze this bill?
Why the U of A?
The Drovers article states that the University was, “asked by the U.S. Senate Agricultural Committee to provide an objective analysis,” of the bill. I’ll give you one guess as to where the minority leader of the U.S. Senate Ag Committee might be from? Yep, Arkansas’s Senator John Boozman is the minority leader of the committee and he has been a vocal opponent of any and all sorts of regulations that might rein in the ability of beef packers to manipulate the cattle market. Last week Senator Chuck Grassley, a co-sponsor of the bill, accused fellow GOP Ag Committee members of working, “at the behest,” of a beef packer lobbyist organization, the North American Meat Institute, to drum up opposition to his bill.
What’s the real story?
So are the results of this, “objective analysis” the real story here, or is the the real story that a bought off politician enlisted a bought off university to give him what he and his corporate bosses wanted? Unfortunately, the bought off media will never report what the real story should be, they will report the findings of this analysis as if they are fact, and never mention that a beef packer has given millions to the people doing the analysis. Drovers magazine makes no mention at all of John Boozman, or of Tyson being headquartered in Arkansas, and they certainly didn’t mention the millions donated. Its not that they didn’t realize it, its simply because they don’t want their readers to know.
The Results
I’m sure Boozman is now taking these results to all the members of the Senate Ag Committee, and doing everything he can to stop any bill that will ever require an increase in competition in the cattle market. Next week is the National Cattleman’s Beef Association’s national convention and I’m sure that, that beef packer lobbyist organization will be slapping backs, and buying drinks, and telling all the cattlemen that they can con into coming, that these geniuses in Arkansas have looked at the numbers and everyone needs to just stay with their confidential marketing agreements and shut the hell up.
Don’t let them do it. Instead share with them the truth. Share this article. Make sure every cattle producer out there knows that the results of this research were bought and paid for. Make sure all of your elected representatives know the lengths that people like John Boozman are willing to go, to make sure their corporate bosses can continue to control the cattle market.
Find your Senator here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
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Jim Mundorf- Owner of Lonesome Lands and The Drover House. He also works on his family’s farm and cattle ranch in Iowa