Ol' Chuck Grassley puts the Smack Down on Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has sent a letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue asking him to get off his ass and do something. Its about time somebody did.

Grassley writes about how in 1999 (106th Congress) he oversaw a hearing on the USDA’s enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act. The results of the hearing were that the USDA, through the Grain Inspectors Packers and Stockyards Act (GIPSA) has, “broad investigative, enforcement, and rule-making powers” that it simply refuses to use to protect livestock producers. Grassley states, “The concern we discussed twenty years ago remains the concern we continue to discuss today. Producers are not shielded from the unfair and anti-competitive practices within the production livestock industry and the USDA does not appear to be using its authority under the law to vigorously investigate and take action against bad actors.” Hell yes, its about time somebody with some authority said it.

Grassley also states that in January of 2019, under the USDA the Agriculture Marketing Services proposed a rule that, “appears to provide legal protection for packers and integrators who can justify a practice based on the need to save costs and reduce prices, or if their practices are deemed “customary” in the industry because they align with those of their competitors.” I believe what Chuck is saying here is that the USDA has actually proposed a rule that is meant to look like it is adding regulations, but what it is actually doing is protecting and allowing the beef packers to screw producers.

Grassley went on to remind Perdue of something that he seems to have forgotten about, that, On August 28, 2019, you directed USDA’s Packers and Stockyards Division to launch an investigation into beef pricing margins following the fire at Tyson’s plant in Holcomb, Kansas. Before the Corona this fire was the perfect example of how the beef packers operate. There was a fire in a packing plant which gave the packers an excuse to tank the cattle market under the guise of supply concerns. Those concerns also gave them an excuse to raise the prices for beef, resulting in record margins for packers. When the smoke cleared it turned out that since cattle were so cheap the packers somehow found a way to process more cattle than they did before the fire. Even after this was found out prices did not return. For some reason cattle prices can always tank at the drop of a hat, but for some reason recovery is a much slower process.

Then Grassley puts the smack down. “If a report is not issued on the Tyson’s Holcomb, Kansas, plant by August 9, 2020, a year since the fire at Tyson’s, I will be asking GAO to conduct an investigation into the reporting processes of the Packers and Stockyards Division to see if additional authority or resources are needed to properly conduct oversight of processing facilities.” An ultimatum, essentially saying, if you don’t show some results I will have this division investigated.

It has become obvious that the USDA investigation announcement back in August was simply done shut cattle producers up. It should have taken about 5 minutes to figure out that the market was not operating properly, the fact that it now has been 10 months and not a word has been said about it from USDA, just makes it obvious that nothing was being done, or ever would be. Then came the Corona and the beef packers couldn’t help themselves, and worked their hardest to screw everyone again. Now they have the Department of Justice investigating them as well.

I have a rule that I won’t write about politics on the site, but this isn’t so much about politics, ideology, or trying to get anyone to vote a certain way. Its just about the a politician who has the balls to stand up for the little guys and voice the concerns of the cattle producers in his state and around the county. Give’em hell Chuck.