Meat processors say government won't acknowledge the real problem

A trade group representing the nation s meat processors, including JBS USA, Cargill and Tyson Foods, blasted the Biden administration Tuesday for accusing the industry of pandemic profiteering — saying the government refuses to acknowledge the real problem.

In a letter to US Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, the North American Meat Institute says surging prices are a result of a nationwide labor shortage — not consolidation of the meat industry.

The Administration cannot ignore the fundamental principles of supply and demand, said Anna Potts of NAMI.

Americans are experiencing firsthand what the Secretary refuses to acknowledge, the effects of COVID and lack of labor are hurting consumers, and nothing proposed by the Secretary of Agriculture on the structure of the meat and poultry industry will help families struggling to pay for groceries. At a press conference last week, Vilsack painted as greedy middlemen deese the four biggest meat firms in the country with a director of the White House National Economic Council. Farmers are losing money on cattle, hogs and poultry that they re selling at a time when consumers are seeing higher prices at the grocery store, Vilsack said. There are currently record profits or near-record profits for those in the middle. Those four firms are Minnesota-based commodity trader Cargill, Arkansas-based poultry producer Tyson Foods, Brazil-based meatpacker JBS and Missouri-based National Beef Packing Co. owned by Brazilian beef producer Marfrig Global Foods.

Together, those companies slaughtered about 85 percent of the US grain-fattened cattle that are first made into steaks, beef roasts and other cuts of meat in 2018 according to the most recent data available from the US Department of Agriculture.

The industry was totally off guard by last week s allegations, Potts said.

Over the past three months, she said, NIMA personnel met with officials from the White House Supply Chain Task Force and USDA.

She noted in her letter that not once in any meeting did White House or USDA Staff indicate consumer prices were rising because of industry structure. Similarly, prior to the press briefing, no White House or USDA staff contacted the regulated industry to raise concerns or discuss the issue. The main issue in the meat industry, she insisted, is the same problem that is roiling other industries like restaurants and hotels: a labor shortage.

At the press conference the challenge of labor shortages was never once known or posed as being real.

Potts said, acknowledged.

The pandemic seems to be the vehicle spawning other bad ideas and resurrecting new bad ideas, apparently without recognizing economic realities and unintended consequences, she added.

Indeed, none of the proposals apposed in the press briefing will alleviate consumer price increase that administration seeks to address. Representatives for The Post have not responded immediately to The White House's request for comment.