This will help assure a fair system for all producers. This has the effect of limiting competition in the area and reducing the number of marketing opportunities for independent producers. Smithfield's announcement that it would shut down the hog processing lines once it purchased Farmland's Dubuque, Iowa, pork plant is a good example. This action may well result in substantially lower prices for producers of the 7,800 hogs that are processed or slaughtered each day at that plant. Farm Bureau has long supported authorization for a statutory trust for the protection of cash sellers to livestock dealers.
More transparency is necessary.
It is basic human nature that anyone provided limited information becomes highly skeptical, no matter the circumstances. Farmers become especially skeptical when no information is forthcoming and the result is a constriction of the number of marketing outlets in their local area. The transparency of information regarding mergers, acquisitions and anticompetitive activities must be enhanced. Farm Bureau supports appointing an Assistant Attorney General at DOJ with the sole responsibility of handling agricultural mergers and acquisitions. DOJ has an enormous job these days with consolidations and mergers in so many industries.