Who are they working for?

Congress, and in particular the members of the House and Senate Agricultural Committees, should be ashamed of themselves. Voters should cull a few out this coming November because an entire year has passed and there is still no Farm Bill. It is looking likely that there will be no Farm Bill again this year.

They did a draft of sorts, but the Senate and House versions are very different, meaning that there is no consensus. However, some of what they do agree upon is disturbing. 

For instance, restoration of country-of-origin labeling of beef (COOL) is not in the Farm Bill but the amplifying processing in livestock in the U.S. (A-Plus Act) is. Ninety percent of Americans say that they would like to know the country of origin of their beef purchases. Meanwhile, the A-Plus Act would benefit at most a few dozen people. This is what passes as representative government in today’s Congress.

You are probably asking, “What on earth is the A-Plus Act?” 

That is the point; you never heard of it because the sponsors are pulling a fast one on the cattle industry. The A-Plus Act guts the Packers and Stockyards Act by allowing auction yard owners to also own and operate a packing plant. An auction barn’s duty is to provide an honest forum for price discovery. A packing plant is in the market to buy cattle for the least amount possible. You can’t do both — it is a clear conflict of interest.

The separation of livestock markets from packing is central to the purpose of the Packers and Stockyards Act. Prior to the passage of the Act in 1921, the packer cartel owned the terminal markets where the livestock were priced. Congress in that era understood that the independent integrity of auction markets is central to honest price discovery. 

The Packers and Stockyards Act gave us the assurance that slaughter plants could not collude in pricing livestock because they no longer owned the market place. Through misguided policy lapses we have allowed a new beef cartel to form; but at least, for now, packers and auction markets continue to be separated.

The propaganda coming from the sponsors of the A-Plus Act is that they are doing cattle producers a favor by fostering more packing plant capacity. What is the point of more slaughter capacity if you cannot get the beef in front of consumers because of collusion between the packer cartel and the retail giants? Why is it that auction barn owners are specifically anointed to invest in packing plants? There are many investment opportunities open to everyone, including the owners of auction barns, that have a better return than operating a packing plant in competition with the big four.

The A-Plus Act is an underhanded attempt to make the Packers and Stockyards Act irrelevant. One reason that it is in the Farm Bill proposal is that the packing cartel is in a hissy fit because USDA, under the Biden Administration, has proposed rules that clarify what is unjust or undue behavior. The latest rule (Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets Rule) allows that a livestock producer can sue for unjust discrimination on the part of a packer and no longer have to prove that the harm was industry wide (an absurd standard that the federal courts for some corrupt reason imposed on cattle feeders).

Predictably, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is denouncing this rule. In the association’s telling it shall cause countless frivolous lawsuits and eliminate the incentive for raising higher grading cattle. 

Absurd! If the Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets Rule results in lawsuits, it is only because thousands of livestock producers have been harmed. Why is it that the association is out there in the front marching for the packing cartel? Where were they when 48,000 independent feeders gave up because of sustained — year after year — losses?

The question is, who are they working for? They won’t support COOL but propose to eviscerate the Packers and Stockyards Act. These members of Congress are not representing us.

There are a lot of actions for you to take. First, tell the sponsors of the A-Plus Act that you do not like what they propose. For good measure call the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate ag committees and tell them to kill the A-Plus Act but pass COOL instead.

I admit that is a lot of calling, but this is the only way to communicate our priorities to Congress anymore. Otherwise, they get away with ignoring the public and freely pander to special interests.

Gilles Stockton is director of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association.