ICYMI: At Senate Agriculture Hearing, Brown Presses USDA Officials on Ways to Lower Prices for Small Farmers and Ranchers

Download Production Quality Footage of Sen. Brown's Exchange HERE

WASHINGTON,D.C. - In Case You Missed It: yesterday, during a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Committee hearing titled, "Legislative Hearing to Review S. 4030, The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022, And S.3870, The Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act of 2022," U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) questioned officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on ways to better support farmers, ranchers, and consumers as corporations consolidate and engage in unfair business practices. Brown discussed how provisions in the recent government funding package to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act will help ensure farmers and ranchers are not taken advantage due to anti-competitive practices in their industry.

"The testimony today mentions the need for legislation, like the two bills being discussed today, to be 'appropriately resourced.' Until the recent Omnibus, funding for the Packers and Stockyards Act has been flat since 2010," said Brown.

Brown questioned Bruce Summers, Administrator of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service and Andy Green, a USDA Senior Advisor for Fair and Competitive Markets on ways to support small farmers and others in the Agriculture sector who are up against unfair business practices and being squeezed by corporate consolidation.

Brown asked Green to elaborate on ways flat funding has hurt USDA's ability to provide support for farmers as corporate consolidation increases.

"As you know, we have had flat resources and reality has meant that a 40% decline in the staff within the Packers and Stockyard division, the Packers Stockyard program," said Green. "But we certainly would benefit from the ability to engage in the more robust analysis to do the more complex investigations and to be able to cover more ground because these are challenges that producers are feeling every single day and if we're not out there enforcing the rules, you do have significant risks that producers are not going to get a fair shake and their not feeling like participating in hearings or speak their voice as Senator Fisher highlighted. So, we believe resources are absolutely essential and appreciate you asking that question of us."

Brown questioned Summers to explain different tools and funding USDA would need to beat back against unfair business practices that hurt farmers, ranchers, and consumers.

"With respect to tools and the reasons why, as companies have gotten bigger, issues have gotten more complex, companies sometimes we are looking at investigating the scope of the investigations are tremendous. That's why we need additional resources. Not just people, we need expertise, we need knowledge, and we need to adjust, I think, some of the specialties within our staff to meet the needs of what is really the modern marketplace," said Summers.

With a lot of factors going into the pricing of cattle, Brown asked Green to discuss how the cattle contract library could promote transparency and free markets.

"It is absolutely essential, as we provided in August two new reports into the formula transaction around the net pricing. But, as you highlighted, there are a lot of factors that go into whether that net price really reflects the price being paid to cattle. Whether it is transportation, or financing, or resharing or other things. So, having the transparency through a cattle contract library that is part of this legislation, and that is part the legislation that is passed in the House, those are useful tools to help producers have the transparency they need to make good business decisions that work for them," said Green.