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MO Senator drafts bill to address meatpacking industry consolidation

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri says the Strengthening Antitrust Enforcement for Meatpacking Act encourages more government oversight.

“If you have a monopoly in meat packing, which we have right now with four companies controlling almost all of the meatpacking in America, than the Justice Department ought to have the power to break those companies up. And secondly, if one of those companies tries to buy a competitor, the government ought to be able to block it.”

Hawley says the closure of two Tyson poultry processing plants in southern Missouri has negatively affected farmers and plant workers. Hawley says Tyson CEO Donnie King told him the company would ensure Missouri farmers were able to get new contracts to produce chickens.

“I hope this isn’t corporate happy talk,” he says. “Tyson has had record years the last two years. They’ve made gobs of money, want their profits to be higher, want chicken to cost more and them to produce less. That shouldn’t come by forcing Missouri workers and farmers out of business.”

Hawley tells Brownfield he’s optimistic there will be an appetite for Congress to consider the bill once the government funding issue is addressed.

He says the bill would likely start in the Senate Judiciary Committee.