The USDA is Out of Control

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2006/01/19/build/nation/75-usda-audit.inc"><acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> faked anti-competition investigations, audit says</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>The Agriculture Department has pretended to investigate anti-competitive behavior among stockyards and meat companies since 1999, but in hundreds of cases it hasn't actually filed complaints, says an audit released Wednesday.<br />n<br />nSenior officials blocked investigations from being referred to department lawyers, who can file complaints or refer cases to the Justice Department, according to the audit by the agency's inspector general.<br />n<br />nIn the meantime, employees were told to create the appearance of a high rate of enforcement by logging routine letters and reviews of public data as investigations, the inspector general said. <br />n<br />nIowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who sought the audit, said top officials were blocking investigations "and then cooking the books to cover up the agency's lack of enforcement."<br />n<br />n"America's producers have faced an increasingly integrated and consolidated market, but in the past five years, <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> has made virtually no attempt to investigate or take action against unfair and anticompetitive market behavior," said Harkin, senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. </blockquote><br />n<br />nAny body that stops by here regular knows I have a beef with the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> and it's policies that are pro big meat packer and anti consumer/small producer and here again is more proof of my wild allegations. The big meat packers have bought and paid for the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>, a government agency, and run it for their benefit. By keeping the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> from enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act effectively they control the cattle industry and the prices they pay for cattle. Don't get me wrong, the meat packers bought and paid for the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym>/<acronym title="National Cattlemans Beef Association, shills for the big meat packers">NCBA</acronym> and they are getting what they paid for. I just wonder when the Legislative and Judicial branches of our government are going to catch on to what is going on and get control of the situation. This might be a start but I doubt it. I'm sure the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> will bury the report somehow.<br />n<br />nThe real laugh line in the article is at the end.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>With about 150 employees and a budget last year of $19.5 million, the Packers and Stockyards Program regulates a livestock industry worth about $120 billion.</blockquote><br />n<br />n"Regulates a livestock industry?" The whole story is about how they <u>don't</u> regulate the industry. I guess the meat packers are laughing all the way to the bank.<br />n<br />n<b>Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country. Karl Kraus</b><br />n<br />n<b>UPDATE:</b> 1/20/2006 I see the article I linked about this situation changed while I was gone. The quotes you see above are accurate to the article I originally read and commented on. The changed article claims the <acronym title="United States Department of Agriculture, Bought and Paid for by The Big Meat Packers">USDA</acronym> head is going to fix the problem. Yea, and pigs can fly.