By Leah Douglas
(Reuters) – The United States will issue new rules and $1 billion in funding this year to support independent meat processors and ranchers as part of a plan to address a lack of “meaningful competition” in the meat sector, President Joe Biden said on Monday.
The initiative comes amid rising concerns that a handful of big beef, pork and poultry companies have too much control over the American meat market, allowing them to dictate wholesale and retail pricing to profit at the expense of their suppliers and consumers.
“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation,” Biden said. “That’s what we’re seeing in meat and poultry industries now.”
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) will spend the $1 billion from American Rescue Plan funds to expand the independent meat processing sector, including funds for financing grants, guaranteed loans, and worker training, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who was speaking at an event with Biden.
A recent White House analysis found that the top four meatpacker companies control between 55% and 85% of the market in the hog, cattle, and chicken sectors.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the event that “too many industries have become too consolidated over time,” and that the antitrust division of the Department of Justice has been chronically underfunded.
“Anticompetitive practices in agriculture, as in any industry, hurts the American people – producers, consumers, and workers alike – and they hurt the American economy,” Garland said.
USDA will issue rulemaking this year to strengthen enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act and to clarify the meaning of “Product of USA” meat labels, which domestic ranchers have said unfairly advantage multinational companies that raise cattle abroad and only slaughter in the United States.
National Chicken Council president Mike Brown called the plan “a solution in search of a problem.”
(Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
