Comment Text:
Re: CFTC Rulemakings as Required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act
Dear Secretary Stawick:
Me and my wife are cattle producers from Missouri and we want the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to move forward to implement and enforce the provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act that are intended to increase the confidence, security and stability in commodity futures markets while preserving market liquidity, competition, and hedging and price discovery functions of the market.
I sure that you are aware of these changes, and I hope you understand the impact that the unfair advantage that the large beef packers are pushing onto our nation’s farmers and ranchers. We are losing our farms and cattle herds to the nearly stagnant cattle prices and grain prices, not to mention the unfair beef trade with third world countries. Our expenses are not even close to stagnant. We have gotten more for our Soybeans in 1977 than we do in 2010/2011. Not many industries can survive with this kind of stagnation.
Yes, our efficiency has increased, but at a large cost. Fuel, equipment, land prices, INSURANCE, and maintenance costs have more than tripled in this 30 year span, but our income has not. That is why the farming industry is failing in the United States. Small farms are being sold, because 100 to 500 acres cannot support a couple without additional income, much less if they start a family.
I don’t know where you stand on the farming industry. I hope that you are on our side. The farmer is the hardest working, least paid, and least thought of in the United States. Farmers are being blamed for the high cost of food, yet the packers and industries, that need us, are reaping the large profits, while starving the producers. We have been attacked by the Humane Society of the United States, for our eating of beef, pork, chicken, etc. and so far have been able to hold them back. Now we have to fight greedy meat packers that are controlling our marginal income from our cattle.
The American farmer/rancher needs to be protected. We need to have open markets and FAIR prices. We need help from you to prevent these UNFAIR advantages for the few large packers limiting OUR beef prices for THEIR profit margins.
We farmers are feeding America, not the packers or any other "middle men". We need to be able to keep feeding America. Talk to the country of SPAIN. They allowed outsourcing their food supplies and did not support their farming industry. World War II hit and that country nearly starved to death. After the war, they woke up and protected their farmers/ranchers and vowed to never let that happen again. Please help us survive these attacks. We are just trying to continue with a way of life that is getting harder and harder to live with, and this country NEEDS our products.
Sincerely,
Dale and Dixie Taggart
24390 Rodel Lane
California, MO 65018
