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News Brief

Aug. 28, 2024 |  By: Chrystal Blair - Public News Service

MO livestock producers seek fairness in consolidated meat industry

cows

By Chrystal Blair - Public News Service

Missouri livestock producers are pushing Congress to restore country-of-origin labeling for beef in the next farm bill, believing it'll boost their cattle's market value.

They're also calling on the next administration to finalize rules started by the Biden Administration to ensure fair treatment from large meatpackers and poultry companies.

Tim Gibbons - Communications Director at the Missouri Crisis Center, an organization helping to preserve family farms - said the food system has become increasingly monopolized, due to widespread consolidation.

"Those family farmers go out of business," said Gibbons. "It gives more control over those monopolistic food system, it extracts wealth from our communities. But, it also allows them to charge consumers more because there's a lack of competition in the marketplace."

Gibbons said if finalized, proposed amendments to the Packers and Stockyards Act would set clear guidelines for applying and enforcing prohibitions against unfair practices.

Gibbons explained that the Packers and Stockyards Act, a 100 year-old anti-trust law, hasn't been properly updated until now to tackle modern market consolidations.

He said this leaves small producers at a disadvantage.

"When these new rules become law," said Gibbons, "we're going to work, to push even more on the enforcement of anti-trust laws and the strengthening of those laws, so that we can have real capitalism."

Gibbons emphasized that family farmers in Missouri and across the country are fighting for these laws to secure not only their own livelihoods, but also the future of farming for generations to come.