WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said he’s introducing the second part of his concentration agenda which would make it unlawful for a packer to own or feed livestock intended for slaughter.
“Outlawing packer ownership of livestock would make sure the forces of the marketplace would work for the benefit of the farmer just as much as it does for the slaughterhouse. You could even say that packer ownership of livestock frustrates and compromises the marketplace so the farmer doesn’t get a fair price,” Grassley said.
The Packer Ban excludes single pack entities and packers that are too small to participate in the Mandatory Price Reporting program. The bill also exempts farmer cooperatives where the members own, feed, or control the livestock themselves.
Grassley said that the CEO of a major slaughter house once told a group of farmers: You wonder why we own livestock? Well, we own livestock so that when prices are high we kill our own and when prices are low we buy from the farmer.
“It’s pretty clear to this statement what their intent is and how unfair it is to the family farmer,” he said.
The Packer Ban is the latest in Grassley’s efforts to address concentration issues during the upcoming farm bill debate. Last week he introduced legislation that would ban mandatory arbitration clauses from being included in contracts between livestock producers and packers.
“Concentration is one of the most important issues in agriculture today. Vertical integration leaves the independent producer with even fewer choices of who to buy from and sell to. And, it hurts the ability of farmers to get a fair price for their products. It’s unfortunate that none of this was included in the final 2002 farm bill,” Grassley said.
Grassley will continue to lay out his concentration agenda over the next several weeks.
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