A brand new file from USDA’s Financial Analysis Carrier presentations the meatpacking business has consolidated considerably prior to now 40 years. In its Focus and Festival in U.S. Agribusiness file, ERS notes that 34% of red meat used to be processed through the 4 greatest firms in 1980, however through 2019 that proportion had just about doubled to 67%. The fashion used to be much more pronounced for steers and heifers, emerging from 36% to 85% focus, with nearly all the building up happening between 1980 and 1995. Knowledge from poultry manufacturers handiest is going again to 1995 however presentations a lot less-pronounced consolidation than different meat sectors.
The file attributes a lot of the shift to technological advances permitting higher, extra environment friendly processing vegetation. To maintain a continuing glide of farm animals for those higher vegetation, firms started growing more-integrated provide chains and inspiring farmers to specialize. Hog and poultry manufacturers are extremely included, however farm animals stay most commonly different amongst smaller herds. ERS notes that over 750,000 farms and ranches carry farm animals, whilst handiest 15,000 contract to boost chickens and six,000 contract to boost hogs.
Whilst consolidation is continuously related to diminished festival and better shopper costs, the file reveals that added economies of scale and innovation may if truth be told decrease costs. Then again, over the last decade, spreads between wholesale and farm values have trended up, specifically in red meat. ERS notes there were quite a few new entrants to the processing marketplace prior to now few years, which can assist decide whether or not those tendencies proceed or opposite.
NCBA asks federal pass judgement on to completely strike down WOTUS rule
In a lawsuit filed through the Nationwide Cattlemen’s Pork Affiliation within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of Texas, the group has requested a federal pass judgement on to strike down the Biden management’s Waters of the USA rule in its entirety. The guideline used to be successfully gutted in Would possibly through the Superb Court docket in Sackett v. EPA case, which held that EPA had overstepped its statutory authority through looking to keep an eye on extra land than the legislation lets in.
Within the wake of Sackett, the Biden management introduced plans to factor a revised WOTUS rule through the tip of the summer season, which an EPA authentic described as “surgical” adjustments. NCBA believes minor tweaks would violate the Superb Court docket’s ruling, and not anything not up to a complete repeal is so as.
“In Sackett v. EPA, the Superb Court docket unanimously dominated that the EPA had overstepped its authority underneath the Blank Water Act,” mentioned NCBA Leader Suggest Mary-Thomas Hart. “A complete rewrite of the Biden management’s WOTUS definition is the one trail to agree to the Sackett resolution. NCBA is looking for abstract judgment in our lawsuit towards the Biden WOTUS rule and urging the Southern District of Texas to strike the rule of thumb from the books.”
SNAP error charge bounce attracts sharp bipartisan reaction
An surprising building up in error charges for Supplemental Diet Help Program bills drew an strange bipartisan rebuke from the leaders of the Area and Senate Agriculture Committees. After a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic, the SNAP error charge file confirmed the overpayment charge rose 59% between 2019 and 2022. Just about 10% of recipients had been improperly made up our minds to be eligible for SNAP advantages in fiscal 12 months 2022. Alaska had the worst overpayment charge at just about 57%, whilst South Dakota had the most productive at 3.07%.
In a while after USDA launched the most recent knowledge, Area Ag Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pa.) and Score Member David Scott (D-Ga.), and Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich) and Score Member John Boozman (R-Ark.) issued a joint remark.
“The pandemic led to new demanding situations for USDA and states alike, who took measures to verify get admission to to SNAP,” the gang mentioned. “Then again, the nationwide error charge as reported nowadays is unacceptable and threatens the integrity of this system. We urge governors and directors to promptly determine corrective motion plans and proceed to paintings with USDA to deal with the basis reasons of those mistakes to reinforce their program operations, stay responsible to the taxpayer, and most significantly, make sure that advantages are focused to the people who find themselves essentially the most in want.”
SNAP eligibility is among the maximum politically divisive problems on this 12 months’s farm invoice reauthorization debate. In early June, Congress agreed to regulate eligibility for positive populations in a bipartisan settlement to boost the debt ceiling. Then again, some lawmakers proceed to hunt adjustments comparable to further paintings necessities.