House Agriculture Committee to Hear Review on State of Livestock Industry
Meat industry representatives will defend their operations and pricing practices on Thursday before the full House Agriculture Committee during a “Hearing to Review the State of the Livestock Industry.”
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack will address the committee. In addition, industry representatives on the witness list include Scott Hays, vice president of the National Pork Producers Council; Todd Wilkinson, vice president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association; Francois Leger, owner of FPL Food in Augusta, Ga., testifying on behalf of the North American Meat Institute; Scott Blubaugh, president of the Oklahoma Farmers Union, testifying on behalf of the National Farmers Union; and Brad Boner, vice president of the American Sheep Industry Association.
The hearing is scheduled for noon Eastern time on Oct. 6 and may be attended in person or virtually.
Earlier this week, Vilsack announced plans for another $100 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act intended to help expand meat processing capacity and the number of processors in the meat and poultry supply chain. The funding would leverage hundreds of millions more in lending through community and private sector lenders to expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure.
In June, Grassley joined Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) to announce bipartisan legislation to address anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries that threaten the nation’s food supply and national security following the ransomware attack on JBS, the country’s largest meat supplier.
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