Texas Slim urges return to local beef systems, warns of multinational control

Texas Slim, founder of the Beef Initiative, told a Sunday audience that his near-death experience in 2019 led him to travel widely and study the U.S. food system, saying, "I was 6 weeks away from dying," as he explained why he now promotes locally controlled beef supply chains.

He framed the problem as both public-health and market-driven: citing what he described as "United States government statistics," Texas Slim said "88% of Americans are now metabolically bankrupt," and argued that decades of consolidation and policy changes have narrowed farmers' options and weakened local food resilience.

Why it matters: Texas Slim blamed a post-1971 industrial shift in agriculture for the loss of diversified, community-based production, and he claimed that "85% of our animal protein in the United States is now controlled by 4 multinational corporations," naming JBS and Tyson as examples. He said that consolidation and global supply-chain incentives have reduced American market access for independent ranchers.

Texas Slim criticized regulatory and corporate trends he said changed the food supply. He argued the FDA and USDA have permitted widespread changes to ingredients and additives and asserted recent regulatory outcomes allowed thousands of new chemicals into food products. He also said university curricula in food and agricultural sciences are influenced by the multinational chemical and food firms that now employ or fund some programs.

On solutions, Texas Slim described the Beef Initiative as an "open-source" and vertically integrated network he said already has "over 200 ranchers/producers" and aims to recruit many more. "We're going to get everybody's attention," he said, and he urged consumers to reconnect with local producers: "Start living like your grandparents did," he advised, recommending direct relationships with ranchers and local markets over relying on large retailers.

Texas Slim presented his approach as a decade-long project focused on empowerment rather than profit; he said he "liquidated my life" to do the work and that the initiative drafts model rules and advocates lawmakers prioritize producers and consumers over multinational processors.

The presentation included claims about COVID-era market behavior and enforcement (for example, an asserted JBS profit figure and quoted federal fines). Those assertions were presented by Texas Slim as his reported findings and were not independently corroborated in the event recording.

The talk closed with a pledge to show videos documenting recent wildfires and relief needs in the Texas Panhandle and an invitation to a question-and-answer session.

Ending: Texas Slim said the initiative's next steps include expanding producer participation and pressing for policy changes; he invited attendees to test his claims and to participate in local, producer-driven efforts.