Billings, Mont. – In a letter sent late last year to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, 16 state attorneys general outline systemic failures in the current structure of U.S. livestock markets and offer suggestions for increased enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA).
Seeking a return to competition in U.S. livestock markets, the letter identifies increased packer concentration, the thinning of the competitive cash market and attendant increase in Alternative Marketing Arrangements (AMAs) as key factors in threatening producer profitability and resulting in fewer producers participating in livestock markets.
Pointing out that the packer concentration problem of today is worse than it was when the PSA was passed over 100 years ago, the letter explains the uniqueness of the PSA – that it is “antimonopoly legislation, separate and apart from the nation’s antitrust laws.” The attorneys general then suggest the PSA may be able to address the effects of past packer mergers, which have enabled concentrated packers to charge higher prices to consumers, while paying producers less for their livestock.
They further suggest that Vilsack should appropriate money from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for a grant that would enable state attorneys general to both investigate and bring actions in agricultural markets. They explain that while state attorneys general can have a significant impact on market concentration, the lack of…
