Reforming Meat

“Livestock is increasingly traded from packer to packer, not farm to packer, giving packers more control of the total market — in the pasture, in the barns, in the feedlots and on the killing floor. This, in turn, makes price collusion and manipulation much too easy. Mr. Vilsack’s rules aim to address this, making it illegal for packers to sell livestock to other packers.

By themselves, these changes will only modestly reduce the concentration in the industry today. Packers argue that a tightly integrated system results in high quality meat. In fact, the current system guarantees only a steady flow of animals, at the lowest possible prices, through the nation’s slaughterhouses, while doing little to address the issues of industrial production: overuse of antibiotics, groundwater pollution, toxic manure waste.

We hope Mr. Vilsack will be able to make his modest rule changes stick. But we also think it’s time for a larger initiative in preparation for the next farm bill — which could reach Congress in 2012 — to prevent packers from owning animals before they’re ready for slaughter, restore open markets and let small farmers back into the game.”

(Source: The New York Times)