By Shelby Shank
Field Editor

New bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate aims to take a closer look at consolidation in the meat and poultry sectors and its effects on farmers, ranchers and consumers.

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee members Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Tina Smith (D-MN) introduced the Livestock Consolidation Research Act, which would require a comprehensive study of market concentration and its impacts.

The senators noted the bill comes at a critical time, as farmers and ranchers face mounting financial pressure and limited markets options.

“The current patchwork of available data isn’t enough to tackle this problem,” Grassley said. “Our bipartisan legislation will work to address ag concentration by providing farmers, ranchers and shoppers a full picture of how the market is working.”

Consolidation has left much of the processing sector in the hands of a few dominant companies. In the cattle processing industry alone, four major processors control roughly 85% of the market.

“Just a handful of large companies dominate the meat and poultry processing industry, which means higher prices for consumers and shrinking earnings for farmers,” Smith said. “On top of that, farmers and ranchers are dealing with the worst farm economy in 30 years, skyrocketing input costs and cost-of-living crisis at home.”

If passed, the bill would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service to conduct the study, including downstream impacts on consumers.

“Greater transparency in livestock markets is critical to ensuring fairness for farmers and ranchers,” Texas Farm Bureau Associate Director of Government Affairs Laramie Adams said. “This research would help provide a clearer picture of how consolidation is affecting competition and could inform future policy decisions that strengthen the marketplace.”

Grassley and Smith plan to push for the legislation to be included in the research title of the next farm bill, which could form a base of data to inform future decisions.

The full text of the legislation is available here.