By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com

Recently, American Meat Institute President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle said that Congress is poised to " toss a wrench right into the fan belt of the free enterprise system."

He said a provision contained in the Senate version of the 2007 Farm Bill would outlaw the ability of a meat processing company to both own livestock and then process them for consumption.

"This move would destroy an effective business model that has allowed the U.S. meat industry to respond quickly to market signals about what consumers want in their meat products," Boyle said.

He said a 2007 report released by the USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration reported that product quality and consistency were benefits of packers owning livestock.

"Americans want meat products that are safe, high-quality, high-value and consistent," he said. "The meat industry has developed a business model that is consumer-driven and responsive to these needs. If Congress insists on undoing this progress by banning a company's ability to both own and process animals for meat, it will not only be unfair to the meat industry, but to con- sumers."

But Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, said what's at stake in the issue of packer ownership of livestock is the " security of U.S. consumers' meat supply."

"This security is dependent on the structure of our production system," Bullard said. "A system where control is distributed among hundreds of thousands of independent livestock producers, geographically dispersed across the United States, inherently is more secure than a system concentrated in a few geographic locations and controlled by only a few large multinational meatpackers."

Bullard said America's meat supply is in jeopardy.

By the 1990s, he said, the nation's poultry industry was reduced to about 50 integrated firms. U.S. hog operations, which numbered 667,000 just 25 years ago, were reduced 90 percent to only 67,000 operations by 2005. Sheep operations during the same period fell nearly 50 percent, with only 68,000 remaining by 2005.

"Livestock production is now nearly completely controlled by only a handful of meatpackers that have virtually decimated the widely dispersed, family-farm structure of U.S. livestock production with one notable exception," Bullard said.

He said Congress now realizes that America has been harmed by the alarming contraction of its livestock industries, causing the security of our meat supply to be more vulnerable today than ever.

"This measure would prevent the largest meatpackers from competing against cattle producers while simultaneously acting as the only buyer for cattle producers' slaughter-ready cattle," he said.