Issue Briefs

Over the past few decades, the largest meatpacking and processing companies have consolidated their market power, driven smaller meatpackers out of the industry, pushed farmers out of business by offering lower prices for hogs and cattle and slowly but surely raised real prices for consumers. The dominant pork and beef packers have made it impossible for small businesses to survive, and this has contributed to the decline in the number of meatpacker and processor workers as well as to their falling real wages. Together, these losses have undercut a vital economic force in rural America: independent livestock operations and the small businesses and workers that process meat.

In the public debate over government spending, the federal budget deficit and the U.S. Farm Bill, there has been increasing focus on proposals to reduce government subsidies to farmers growing corn, soybeans and other so-called commodity crops.