Originally from: Burkie
                        
Dear Friends: Some of you have asked why I am still in this mess. I only had one initial goal....to do what I could to prevent FAD's Foreign Animal Diseases like FMD from striking the soils of the USA.

I'd like to go to my grave knowing I did actually have a hand in helping prevent that from happening, so far.

Then it started becoming personal. I think I "bonded" to this and the other Smartgroups that posted thousands of messages to each other for nearly three years now. You all got to be like a big "family." and yes, we've lost some of the Best Contributors already, God Bless'em.

Ok...Burkie...get with it and tell us what's on you're trying to share....so I will.

I grew up raising livestock. I went with my Dad to the Bank to get loans. I scooped grain to feed them...silage, too...and scopped poop after they ate it. We raised purebred livestock. Know that business, too. And it was fun to win a show...get a "premium" price for a boar or gilt or bull calf. Mission accomplished! Success! Paper-clippings and ribbons.

Wanted to be a vet. Was good at keeping my animals healthy.
Read every farm magazine and periodical I could. Hogs were Beautiful...said my most admired person, Mr. Roy Keppy, who won the Chicago show with his hogs year in and year out in the 60's. Oh, to know him! And the Pork Queens were beautiful!

Unfortunately, my high school counselor didn't realize I needed to know such things as Physics, and Trigonometry to get admitted to vet school....and when it came time to go to college, I was rather inadequately prepared for such courses. But shifted gears and got involved with meats, meat judging, buying and selling. Loved it...got good grades and made many friends in the hog and cattle feeding business. Got a job with the Premier Meat Packing Business at the time, Oscar Mayer and Co. They put me in the "heart of hog" country....East Iowa and yes, I finally got to meet Mr. Keppy...and a lot of really swell people who raised both hogs and cattle.....they were on every farm....and evryone lived, breathed and died livestock. We all worked hard to improve genetics...and performance and efficiency...and fight disease, yes, there was "bio-security" back in those days, too. Some producers were a lot more particular about things like that, than others.

Well, then came changes in the meat packing industry. Grade and Yield, Futures Contracting...to name a couple. Little did I know that such organizations like Smithfield was beginning to make it's moves.

Now then, what's left of all this? Not much!

The Ruthless Rape of independent owners raising livestock has occurred. There are only huge producers left. The days of the Farm Family pulling together and helping each other with livestock on their farms are just about a thing of the past.

Buyers aren't needed other than to operate a computer.

No on-farm visits...no coffee with friends. It's history.

Thanks to this man's attitude: Mr. Joseph Luter III

http://www.nationalhogfarmer.com/ar/farming_straight_talk_smithfields/index.htm

I hope you all take time to read this article...an interview done in May, 2000. Before FMD outbreaks. And also read the latest acquisition Smithfield has just gotten accomplished, this past weekend....Farmland Foods Pork Division.

This is about the Rape of the Livestock Industry done by a few back-patting individuals who have worked together to place themselves in key postions to now be yours' and my suppliers of Beef and Pork.

Their next steps? We will all be slaves to the price of the meat we want to buy.

No wonder there is such a huge push for Free Trade....here's one of the pushers.

Burkie in Kansas