By Rusty Kemp
For years, Nebraska cattle producers lived with a simple reality: Too few packers controlled too much of our processing capacity, and we ranchers had little say in how the system worked.
Everyone could see it. Plenty of people talked about it. Very few were willing to take it on.
Sustainable Beef exists because U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts helped Nebraska ranchers do exactly that.
The idea began in 2019, during a trade mission conversation in Hanoi, Vietnam, with then-Gov. Ricketts. While there, we discussed the pressure producers were under and how little leverage ranchers had when so much processing power was concentrated in so few hands.
His response wasn’t political, and it wasn’t flashy. He said, “Figure out how we solve this problem, and I will help you.”
From day one, Ricketts was all in on making Sustainable Beef happen. He helped deliver $20 million in ARPA funding for wastewater treatment in North Platte and made it clear early on that Nebraska would have our back.
When we raised concerns about retaliation from the Big Four meatpackers, he told us plainly: If they start causing problems, let me know.
His support gave the project credibility, brought partners to the table and helped turn ranchers' vision into a real, working operation.
There were no shortcuts, and we had our ups and downs. We had to secure financing, locate a site that fit our needs and work with the community's needs. We had to design and construct the new plant and bring together feedlots from across the state to ensure adequate inventory.
In 2022, our dreams finally came true, and Ricketts came out to North Platte to break ground on the construction of the new plant.
Today, our hard work is paying off.
Sustainable Beef is operating near full capacity, processing up to 1,500 head per day. We source cattle from 26 Nebraska feedlots and employ hundreds of Nebraskans, not to mention the additional employment from ranches sourcing our cattle.
Overall, we’re projected to generate more than $1 billion annually for Nebraska’s economy.
Our Nebraska Beef products are now on store shelves across the nation, and we’re owned primarily by the very same ranchers who raise the cattle.
We’ve shown a blueprint of how to loosen the grip big companies have on the beef industry, not by tearing down existing companies, but by bringing in competition.
Sustainable Beef doesn’t replace the big meatpackers; it forces them to compete. And it does so the Nebraska way, locally owned and locally sourced.
Ricketts understood that from the beginning. While others are content to complain about consolidation, he helped producers challenge it by building something real.
He didn’t turn it into a slogan; he didn’t chase headlines: He delivered.
As a U.S. senator, he continues to point to Sustainable Beef as a model for how Nebraska and America can stand up to consolidation and bring down prices.
While others make political noise about beef consolidation, I trust Ricketts to deliver because he doesn’t just talk, he works, stays engaged when it’s hard, and helps Nebraska producers build solutions that actually stand up to beef consolidation.
In Nebraska, results still matter. Sustainable Beef is one of them.
