JACKSON — In a Dec. 2, 1999, memorandum by then-Mississippi State University Food and Fiber Center's marking specialist Virgil Culver and economist Ken Hood, the following warnings were issued regarding a cull cow slaughter plant in Mississippi:
“It is evident to us that it is not logical to reason that a new slaughter facility will alleviate the problem of low prices received by producers for cull cows. …
“Market access is the major disadvantage in bringing a new slaughter facility online. While investment capital and management capability and experience may be in place, a new firm will be at a competitive disadvantage in entering a low-margin, concentrated market. …
“Current industry trends do not support building a new beef slaughter facility in Mississippi. A more reasonable solution would be to investigate better coordination of cull cow inventories and market them directly to the existing slaughter facility in Memphis. …
“Market barriers, coupled with low margins in the meatpacking industry would make it economically difficult for a new facility to survive.”
The memo from the two MSU researchers was provided to John Lee, who was head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at MSU in 1999.
Rep. Bo Eaton, D-Taylorsville, told The Clarion-Ledger in 2005 that lawmakers, state officials and others interested in the possibility of a plant knew of the document's existence and the information it contained.
But in July 2001, the Land, Water and Timber Resources Board, chaired by Commissioner of Agriculture Lester Spell, awarded Richard N. Hall Jr. a $5 million grant to build Mississippi Beef Processors.
Lawmakers the following year agreed to back a $21 million loan, which ballooned to $35 million. The Oakland plant opened in August 2004 but closed three months later, eventually costing Mississippi taxpayers more than $55 million and 400 jobs.
Spell has denied any knowledge of the 1999 MSU memo prior to learning of it in the media. But Culver, the MSU researcher, told The Clarion-Ledger in 2005 that Spell was present at the October 2000 meeting on the MSU campus along with Eaton; Agriculture Department employees Chris Sparkman, Roger Barlow and Rickey Gray; Sammy Blossom, executive vice president of the Mississippi Cattlemen's Association; Lee, Culver; and fellow MSU employees Terry Kiser, Bob Rogers, Charlie Forrest, Ken Hood and the late Roger McCarty.
But on his campaign Web site (www.LesterSpell.com), Spell maintains: “If MSU had any relevant information, including the 1999 in-house memo, that the plant being proposed in 2001 would not be successful, this important information would have been contained in the 2001 study to the Legislature and the Land, Water and Timber Board.”
How many times, how many ways, did the MSU researchers have to warn state officials that the beef plant was a risky venture likely to fail? How many times did they have to say, “Margins in this industry are extremely thin?”
In the current bunker mentality of the 2007 elections, the failed beef plant is nobody's fault, nobody's idea and nobody's problem save the opponents of any number of candidates.
Spell's contention that he holds no responsibility for the beef plant's failure while blaming it on the Legislature, the Mississippi Development Authority, Hall, MSU, the media and anybody else standing still is one that is nothing less than astounding.
It is unfair in the extreme to place sole blame for the beef plant debacle on any one politician. But it is likewise unfair for one politician who was neck deep in the promotion of this project — and who took political credit for it until it failed — to blame everyone else.
