These products are sold through a variety of outlets to reach the ultimate consumer in restaurants, fast food eateries, retail stores and supermarkets, club stores, and a broad variety of institutions. If there were an easy solution to this very complex problem, it would not be on your agenda today. Thus, my first point here today is to urge you to be wary of any suggestion that mandatory price reporting is merely a matter of developing some legislative language. I am reminded of a time in the early 1970s when there was an idea that mandatory price controls on meat would fix the problem, yet they were a dismal failure, causing irreparable harm at all points in the chain. Inc. Much of what he has stated is right on target.
Meat is a major commodity product in interstate commerce.
Federal preemption is important to every level of production and distribution in the meat distribution system, not just to large packers. In earlier years, there were several independent organizations gathering and publishing market price information. Today, the most extensive market information, used by thousands of buyers and sellers, is collected by USDA Market News reporters. Several firms refine and analyze this information and disseminate it to users. I have personally made several visits to the USDA's Market News Office in Des Moines, Iowa, and observed how the Market News reporters go about the difficult task of gathering information.