Beef Packer Scumbags: Who They Are, and How We Got Here
I go through a lot in the video, and there is still much more that could be covered. I put together a more detailed timeline here, some of the things are not covered in the video. Beef packers have a legacy of being scumbags going back to the earliest days of the beef industry. I started with IBP because I felt like they were the beginning of the modern day scumbags that simply wanted to control the entire industry.
1960: Iowa Beef Packing, IBP, is formed and construction on their first plant is started. Their quest to revolutionize and dominate the beef industry begins. They will achieve their goals with a number of innovative industry breakthroughs, along with cut-throat business and labor tactics. Pretty much from the time they opened they were involved in constant labor disputes.
1974: IBP and their founder are convicted of of conspiring to bribe supermarket buyers and union officials. They are convicted along with a meat broker who had direct ties to the New York Mafia. Leading many to speculate on IBP’s Mafia ties.
1975: IBP, is now the largest beef packer in the world. During the 70’s they become larger than their five nearest competitors combined.
1980’s -90’s: IBP continues to grow pushing out competitors and buying up the ones they can’t push out. In the 90’s IBP spends $1.5 Billion purchasing multiple food processing companies.
1994: After one year as Bill Clinton’s Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy resigns after it is revealed that he received money and gifts from Tyson Foods and others.
1997: Tyson Foods pleads guilty to giving illegal gifts to Ag Secretary Mike Espy. Part of the plea agreement gave immunity to both Don and John Tyson. The gifts were given during a time when the USDA was considering new regulations on the chicken industry. The regulations were not adopted. Although the payments were obvious bribes, Tyson and executives are never charged with bribery.
2001: Tyson Foods, the largest chicken processor, purchases IBP the largest beef packer and second largest pork packer, making Tyson Foods the largest meat packer the world had ever seen.
2000’s: Brazil’s JBS spends $20 billion buying up meat processing corporations around the world.
2007: JBS purchases the third largest beef packer in the U.S. Swift Foods for $1.4 Billion.
2009: JBS surpasses Tyson Foods as the largest meat packer in the world.
2011: Tyson Foods is charged with conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, for under the table monthly payments to the wives of 2 Mexican veterinary inspectors in charge of marking products safe for export. Tyson pays a $4 million fine and $1.2 million to the S.E.C. to settle charges that it maintained false books and records and lacked the controls to prevent payments to phantom employees and Government officials. Although this is another obvious bribery scheme, again, Tyson is not charged with bribery.
2017: The USDA’s Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety and FSIS Administrator Alfred Almanza is hired by JBS.
2017: JBS’s owners plead guilty to paying $150 million worth of bribes to over 1,800 Brazilian Government and Banking officials in order to secure cheap government loans. Owners are sentenced to 6 months in jail and JBS was fined $2 billion.
2018: JBS owner is arrested for giving illegal campaign funding to lawmakers and officials at the agriculture ministry of Brazil.
2020: JBS owners plead guilty in the U.S. to violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for using U.S. Banks and Real Estate to pay bribes to Brazilian officials. They are fined $256 million and then told that they only have to pay half.
2021: Both Tyson and JBS pay out hundreds of millions of dollars to settle price fixing lawsuits. The largest payment of $221.5 being made by Tyson to settle poultry price fixing lawsuits. These payments are made in order to keep the cases out of court so that they are not found guilty.
2022: Both Tyson and JBS announce record breaking earnings, both with profit margins increasing around 30%. Ranchers continue to liquidate.
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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
