Competitive and Fair Agricultural Markets
To prevent price manipulation and save family farm livestock production, the 2007 Farm Bill passed by the U.S. Senate contains a ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock. It also contains provisions that will end the sweetheart deals giant industrial livestock operations receive today. But members of Congress representing the interests of big corporate meatpacking companies are working hard to defeat these desperately needed measures. Your Senators and Representative can help ensure that the conference committee includes a strong Competition Title in the final Farm Bill with a ban on packer ownership of livestock and other crucial livestock market reforms.
What You Can Do: See our Competition Action Alert
Currently, a handful of corporations dominate the American food system. The rapid trend toward vertical integration, especially in hog production, further exacerbates the economic concentration in packing, processing and production. As the livestock sector has become extremely concentrated and integrated, packers and processors increasingly control production at all stages. Packer ownership of livestock (vertical integration) is driving the economic nightmare and environmental catastrophe of concentrated, industrial livestock production.
What You Can Do: See our Competition Action Alert
In many rural places where livestock are raised there are only a few, or even just one, packer or processor for a given livestock species. This is especially true in the livestock and poultry sectors. At the same time there has been a dramatic increase in the use of production and marketing contracts that further diminish the bargaining power of farmers and ranchers. Currently, fully 89% of hogs are either owned outright by packers or tightly controlled through various contracting devices. Many farmers and ranchers face price discrimination and severely limited market access as a result.
The bottom line? In a world where packers own or control all the livestock, there is no place for family farmers and ranchers, rural communities suffer another economic loss and all of us suffer the destruction of our natural environment.
What You Can Do: See our Competition Action Alert
More Information
Weekly column: Mean What You Say
Testimony: Delivered by Center staff John Crabtree
House Sign on Letter: Letter Signed by 64 Organizations (pdf)
House Sign on Letter: Letter Signed by American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, and Center for Rural Affairs (pdf)
Senate Sign on Letter: Letter Signed by American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, and Center for Rural Affairs (pdf)
Senate Floor Admendment: Oppose Senator Roberts Price Discrimination Amendment (#3549) (pdf)
Boswell Breaks with Peterson: Rep. Boswell Affirms Support for Livestock Competition Title in Farm Bill
