Congress is taking another look at how the pandemic affected the beef supply chain, as well as market manipulation by packers.
South Dakota’s congressional delegation has been pushing for months for investigations into both of those issues.
US Representative Dusty Johnson says market deficiencies that were exposed during the pandemic aren’t going away.
“We don’t have enough processing capacity,” Johnson says. “And that is a market failure that has negative impacts both to consumers, who want to eat the beef, as well as producers who are trying to raise it. We need to figure out how to increase that capacity. The lack of capacity has hindered some of the American rancher’s ability to reap some of the benefits of an increasing demand and increasing appetite for beef across the world.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is examining possible improper and anti-competitive activity among four large meat packers. Senator John Thune requested the hearing.
He says one of his top priorities is supporting cattle producers and making sure they have fair and transparent markets for the commodities they produce.