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Source: US HOUSE AG COMMITTEE, 8/7/20
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson of
Minnesota and Ranking Member K. Michael Conaway of Texas sent a letter to U.S.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue today, urging him to work with
university policy research centers to analyze issues related to the cattle
industry, especially in light of the recent and ongoing stress related to
COVID-19.In the letter, Peterson and Conaway call on USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist to evaluate cattle market structure, price discovery, price reporting, purchasing mandates, and barriers to entry in the packing sector. The
letter also specifically asks for the analysis to address the following
questions:
- How did the
sector get to its current structure and what are its advantages and
disadvantages for producers as well as consumers?
- Is the current
capacity sufficient for the industry to thrive and grow?
- What are the
impediments to expansion for both new and existing firms of varied sizes?
- Are there
policy options to expand capacity or increase price discovery regionally
or nationally, and would those options address current concentration and
supply chain vulnerability concerns?
- What common
success factors for small to medium packing plants, including producer-owned
processing can be documented, and is there a set of generalizable
strategies for success?
A
copy of the letter is available here.
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