With nearly 85% of American beef processed by just four companies, livestock producers are increasingly driven to the polls. Vice President Kamala Harris recently pledged to support small businesses and challenge industry oligopolies. Matthew Sheets of the Minneapolis nonprofit Land Stewardship Project emphasized the need for a dual approach: “It needs to be a two-pronged approach of taking on the large interests that are consolidating this industry and harming everybody that is attached to it and supporting the small to mid-sized operators and the people that are farming in a regenerative way.”
A proposed rule under the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act would redefine “unfair practices” to address business conduct that harms the market. The comment period for this rule ends on September 11th.
