R-CALF, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, is calling on the U.S. federal government to investigate a Brazilian corruption scandal by meat processor JBS. R-CALF USA sent a comprehensive, 11-page request to President Trump, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for a full investigation and strict antitrust enforcement action into the corruption scandal. Citing news reports that JBS admitted bribing nearly 2,000 politicians in Brazil, R-CALF USA wrote that JBS’s business model included unlawful practices to influence policy makers in that country and that it is possible JBS deployed that same business model in the United States. JBS is the second-largest beef packer in the United States and owns the nation’s largest cattle feeding company, which the group contends was used by JBS, in conjunction with imported cattle and beef, to manipulate the cattle markets in 2015 and 2016, causing fed cattle prices to fall by more than $850 per head.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.