TAYLOR HAYNES: America’s Small Farmers Can Compete If We Let Them |
The President’s new $12 billion bridge payment plan offers welcome short-term help for domestic farmers, but it also underscores how fragile the American agricultural economy has become – and how urgently we need reforms that outlast any single administration.
For ranchers across America, President Donald Trump’s decision to launch an investigation into the “big four” meatpackers was a welcome first step; monopolization in the industry responsible for processing livestock has meant both lower prices for the business owners who raise these animals and paradoxically higher costs for end consumers at the grocery stores. It’s high time to hold these companies to account.
Yet, potential price fixing is just one example of the obstacles that small and independent producers face in a meat industry increasingly dominated by massive, sometimes foreign-owned conglomerates. If our aim is to restore transparency and fairness in agricultural markets, a variety of new federal approaches are required – including implementing mandatory country of origin labeling, reforming checkoff programs and permitting states to promulgate their own animal husbandry standards reflecting evolving consumer demand.
Much has been made of the Trump administration’s decision to increase beef imports from countries like Argentina – a move designed to lower consumer costs by increasing supply. One might be surprised to learn that........