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Axne sees momentum building in House for cattle market transparency legislation
A member of the House Agriculture Committee is looking forward to maintaining progress on legislation that would bring more transparency to cattle markets.
Iowa Democrat Cindy Axne helped introduce a companion to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s spot market protection bill last summer and tells Brownfield it has a lot of momentum.
“Because where we’ve seen pushback within the House would really be from states like Texas, or others where there’s really big producers.”
She suggests results of the November election favor the legislation that would require large meat packers to buy at least half their weekly beef slaughter on the open market, and mandate that cattle are delivered within 14 days of delivery.
“I think that it’s important to this administration, and I certainly know to the Democratic House Caucus that our food supply system is intact and working well. And for me that means making sure that our Iowa cattle producers have access to the market, transparency, and are free from consolidation and manipulation.”
Axne says both the COVID pandemic and Tyson’s Kansas packing plant fire in 2019 illustrate the need for this legislation.
