MITCHELL, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) A proposed rule from the U-S Department of Agriculture would clarify what is and isn’t fair practice in the American meat industry. The Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets rule would amend regulations under the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to define “unfair practices” as business conduct that harms the market and market participants. Just four companies process about 85-percent of American beef–the result of a long process of corporate consolidation that started in the 1980s and was exposed during COVID-era market disruptions. Long-time South Dakota farmer and rancher Nick Nemec says the proposed rule could help.
| “If we had – you know, I don’t know what the right number is – a dozen, 20 packing plants slaughtering beef, then there’d be real competition in the marketplace.” |
Current laws against price gouging exist at the state level and some states don’t have laws on it at all. In South Dakota, Nemec runs a cow-calf operation and says that, while he doesn’t deal directly with the big four beef corporations, he and his peers still feel the effects of their monopoly.
| “We’re the little bitty pipsqueaks at the bottom of the food chain and there’s nothing we can do about it. I mean, we’re at the whim of the market. “ |
The comment period for the proposed rule ends September 11th.