Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) urged U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to leverage the full scope of his statutory authority to hold meatpackers accountable for anticompetitive behavior, including threatening to revoke inspection services for these companies, which would have a major impact on their bottom-line.
“After years of consolidation in the beef, pork, and chicken processing industries, the food supply chain in the United States has become dangerously fragile,” Senator Hawley writes. “The biggest firms will not curb their anticompetitive practices unless they face a penalty that impacts their bottom line. Big companies require big penalties. The federal statute provides you with robust authority to revoke inspection services following convictions for fraudulent behavior in the marketplace.”
The full text of the letter is available here.