This interview is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.
U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson thinks the cattle industry needs more transparency.
Johnson co-sponsored the Cattle Contract Library Act with Representative Henry Cueller, a Democrat from Texas. The bipartisan bill was passed unanimously last week by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee.
Johnson says it’s a big step forward for the industry.
“We've got too much concentration in this market, we've got four big players that control 85% of the processing capacity. That is not ideal, a free market has many buyers and many sellers. And so what a cattle contract library would do is it would just make that data available that way everybody knows what the pricing is everywhere. And I think it’s going to make for a much fairer environment.”
The bill still needs approval from the full House and Senate consideration before being signed into law.
