Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing Tuesday on two of Senator Chuck Grassley’s bills which he says aim to improve fairness and competition in the cattle industry.
The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act is designed to help independent cattle producers get a fair price for their livestock. That would be done through a public contract library and by setting a minimum level of cattle sales. There’s also the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act which would create a dedicated office at USDA to investigate anticompetitive behavior in the ag industry.
Grassley says he has a long, bipartisan list of co-sponsors for the pair of bills.
Grassley says the nation’s four major meatpackers — Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing — control up to 85% of the hog, cattle and chicken markets.
