• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Thursday, March 23, 2023
The Iowa Torch
  • Home
  • State Government
  • Federal Government
  • Local Government
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • State Government
  • Federal Government
  • Local Government
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Opinion
The Iowa Torch
The Iowa Torch
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Miller-Meeks: Fighting for Iowa’s Producers and Consumers

Mariannette Miller-Meeks: Anticompetitive practices in the American meatpacking industry have grown as a threat to both our food supply and national security.

Mariannette Miller-MeeksbyMariannette Miller-Meeks
October 11, 2021
in Opinion
Reading Time: 3 mins read
Miller-Meeks: Fighting for Iowa’s Producers and Consumers

Photo Credit: Steve Miller (CC-By-NC-SA 2.0)

Iowa’s beef cattle producers have endured challenges beyond their control for years. Natural disasters such as fires, drought, and derechos have created significant market disruptions.

RELATED POSTS

Hendrickson: Iowa’s fiscal foundation is solid

Feenstra: Delivering a strong Farm Bill for Iowa

Miller-Meeks: It’s time to invest in American energy

While we unfortunately cannot control nature, we can control instances of market manipulation and anticompetitive actions undertaken by large corporations in the beef cattle industry. Four companies—Cargill, Tyson, JBS, and National Beef Packing Co.—purchase and process eighty-five percent of total U.S. beef production. Recent, large-scale disruptions at several of those facilities demonstrates how precarious a situation we are in.

In 2019, a single Tyson-owned beef processing plant in Kansas, which processed around six percent of American beef on its own, was closed for months following a large fire. The COVID-19 pandemic caused processing and packing plants to close, which led to additional shortfalls and interruptions in an already uneasy market. Finally, JBS was hit by a ransomware attack that shutdown their plants and stopped production for days.

The fact that these three disruptions impacted our supply chains so severely highlights the problems created by over consolidation in this industry. Anticompetitive practices in the American meatpacking industry, especially in the beef cattle industry, have grown as a threat to both our food supply and national security. Consumers are seeing higher prices at the store, but Iowa’s producers are still losing money. This is unacceptable.

In May of 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division began to investigate the nation’s four biggest meatpackers for anticompetitive practices. Unfortunately, we have seen little, if any, progress in this investigation. In May of 2021, I joined a dozen of my colleagues in the House and Senate in a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to continue the DOJ investigation of the nation’s four biggest meatpackers.

Seeing that nothing was coming of this investigation, I partnered with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger,D-Va., to introduce the bipartisan and bicameral Meat Packing Special Investigator Act. Our bill, which was also introduced by U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jon Tester, D-Mont., would tackle anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries that threaten our food supply and national security.

ADVERTISEMENT

Our legislation also gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the tools it needs to crack down on bad actors and push for fair competition within the marketplace. By enforcing antitrust laws already on the books through the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, increasing oversight and enforcement mechanisms, and protecting producers and consumers alike from unfair or deceptive practices, this bicameral bill is a commonsense step towards strengthening the resilience of the American meat industry.

In the 100 years since the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 was signed into law, the beef cattle industry has become significantly more concentrated. Iowa farmers are losing money left and right while the average American pays more at the store. It is way past time to address this issue, and I am proud to be leading this effort to support Iowa’s producers and consumers.

Tags: 117th CongressAbigail Spanbergerbeef cattle industryChuck GrassleyIowa AgricultureJon TesterMariannette Miller-Meeksmeatpacking industryU.S. Department of Agriculture
ShareTweetShare
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Hinson: IRS Does Not Need to Be Spying on Iowans’ Bank Accounts

Next Post

Grassley, GOP Senators to AG: Don’t Interfere with Parents’ Right to Address School Boards

Mariannette Miller-Meeks

Mariannette Miller-Meeks

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, represents Iowa's 1st Congressional District, she was first elected in 2020 and won a second term in 2022.

Related Posts

corn field
Opinion

Feenstra: Delivering a strong Farm Bill for Iowa

March 22, 2023
oil platfrom rig in the middle of the ocean
Opinion

Miller-Meeks: It’s time to invest in American energy

March 21, 2023
Bio Ethanol on the Way
Opinion

Feenstra: Defending Iowa’s rural energy production

March 15, 2023
Ernst Expresses Concern About Trump’s Upcoming Senate Impeachment Trial
Federal Government

During Sunshine Week, Ernst introduces bill to bring transperancy to taxpayer funding

March 14, 2023
coronavirus
Opinion

Miller-Meeks: Understanding the origins of COVID-19 will prepare us for the future

March 13, 2023
person holding white scroll
Opinion

Miller-Meeks: Loans are loans, even student loans

March 6, 2023
Next Post
Chuck Grassley: Big Tech Must Stop Censoring Americans

Grassley, GOP Senators to AG: Don't Interfere with Parents' Right to Address School Boards

Ernst Expresses Concern About Trump’s Upcoming Senate Impeachment Trial

Ernst: Biden’s Decisions Put America’s Most Wanted Back in Charge of Afghanistan.

Sign-Up For Our Daily Updates

Get The Iowa Torch right in your inbox!

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

Recommended Articles

Winnebago County Becomes Iowa’s 18th Second Amendment Sanctuary County

Winnebago County Becomes Iowa’s 18th Second Amendment Sanctuary County

September 29, 2021
Editorial: The Iowa Supreme Court’s Reversal of Godfrey’s Lawsuit Win Is Just

Iowa Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Oskaloosa

September 10, 2021
architecture daylight driveway entrance

Tax Foundation ranks Iowa 39th in annual state property tax rankings

May 12, 2022

Popular Stories

  • Iowa’s New Unemployment Rate Holds Steady, Overall Rates Rise

    Horn: It’s time for employers get serious about Iowa’s untapped workforce

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • School restroom bill heads to Reynolds’ desk

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ernst: Biden’s WOTUS whiplash.

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Regents Board President pauses new DEI programs at Iowa’s public universities

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Reynolds signs two bills addressing transgender children

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

The Iowa Torch

The Iowa Torch​ is a for-profit, news organization that focuses on political news as it relates to Iowans

Categories

  • Education
  • Federal Government
  • Iowa History
  • Local Government
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • State Government
  • Uncategorized
  • Uncategorized

Newsletter

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

© 2022 The Iowa Torch, a publication of 4:15 Communications, LLC.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • State Government
  • Federal Government
  • Local Government
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Opinion

© 2022 The Iowa Torch, a publication of 4:15 Communications, LLC.