Meat Packers Lobby Hard Against Packer Farm Bill Amendment

January 31, 2002

When the Senate returns to its farm bill debate, possibly the week of Feb. 11, the American Meat Institute hopes to have lobbied senators to retract an amendment approved last month that would prohibit meat packer ownership of livestock under certain conditions and instead mandate an economic impact study on the subject. "We are convinced that once the sweeping and devastating impacts of the amendment are made clear, most level-headed senators would agree that a study is a far more prudent approach," said AMI President J. Patrick Boyle.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), who voted for the amendment on Dec. 13, is sponsoring an amendment to strip the language and replace it with a nine-month USDA study. In a Dec 19 Senate floor statement, he said, "It has come to my attention that (the bill) would prohibit forward contracting, future contracts and other pricing mechanisms. This is significant information. Indeed, had I known it at the time of the vote, I would have voted differently."

In a related development, the Cattlemen's Alliance Coalition, a group of 12 packer-producer alliances, urged the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Board of Directors last Friday to maintain NCBA's opposition to the packer ownership amendment to the farm bill. The amendment, co-sponsored by Sens. Tim Johnson (D-SD), Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Charles Grassley (R-IA) and others, would ban red meat packers from owning, feeding or controlling livestock more than 14 days before slaughter. The bill does not affect the poultry industry.

Members of the alliance include Angus America, Brawley Beef, Farmland Supreme Beef Alliance, Future Beef Operations, Maverick Ranch Beef, Ranchers Renaissance and U.S. Premium Beef, among others. "No longer does the one-price-fits-all marketing system work for all cattle producers," they wrote. "Coordinated production and marketing systems are being initiated, not by packers, but by independent cattle producers who desire to capture more of the value from the high quality beef they are producing."