05/05/2026
There may be more than one way to "skin a cat", but some of those ways can be terribly painful and leave permanent scars!
As much as we want to rid our industry of any and all corruption, we need to keep in mind that it's possible to have a positive goal, but if the steps taken are not carefully planned disaster can often be the end result.
I would compare our vibrant, but fragile cattle markets to another story we hear alot about these days. As a result of the U.S. blockade (among other things), Iran's oil infrastructure has slowed to a literal crawl. As the story goes, if it slows any further, the vibrant but fragile moving parts of the oil industry
that have been in constant motion for decades, are in jeopardy of irreparable damage and possible total collapse.
Turning our attention back to the beef industry which likewise has an enormous amount of infrastructure that has been in predictable and perpetual motion for decades, we see some of the same potential pitfalls. In spite of the merits of corrective measure's that most certainly need to be addressed in order to make the industry more equitable to all parties,
exercising proper care on taking those measures is critical.
I do not pretend to have all (or even any) of the answers, but I can see a number of ways that sloppy or overly aggressive actions could cause far more harm than good, especially when politics are injected into the scene.
Most people would agree that a great fishing pond infested with overgrowth of moss and algae would be better off if it's cleaned up. However, if you're familiar with that process, you are aware that killing more than a small percent of the total pond at any given time will result in too much decomposition of dead algae which in turn depletes the oxygen in the water and kills every fish in the pond.
We want to clean the pond, not kill the fish!
The best route may be slower than we wish it was, but ultimately more effective.
