ICYMI: Press Coverage of Fischer's Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act
Press Release
Last week, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, participated in the committee's hearing on her bipartisan Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency. A full recap of the hearing with video links can be found here. You can read more about the updated legislation here.
Press Coverage Highlights
the Omaha World-Herald Editorial Board
The OWH Editorial Board stated: "Fischer's Cattle Market Transparency Act would require more public disclosure of what packers are paying for their cattle and also require the packers to buy more cattle through competitive cash markets. Her legislation strikes us as a reasonable approach to ensure that the cattle market will operate fairly. As we said in October: "It's in the interest not only of cattle producers but of the general public itself that the market operate fairly, transparently and efficiently. Otherwise, the market can be subject to distortion and possible manipulation, harming producers and consumers alike.'"
Progressive Farmer's ShayLe Stewart noted: "The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) has been sheepish about the bill after its study of how a voluntary cash cattle market would work in today's marketplace failed miserably. Why you ask?
As Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., stated at the hearing, "It didn't work because packers didn't participate." The United States Cattlemen's Association has backed the bill from its origin, and as William "Ricky" Ruffin (a cattle producer from Mississippi who testified on behalf of USCA) said, "It may not be perfect, but it throws cattlemen a real-life raft."
NTV reported: "From small ranches to the biggest feedlots and packing plants shipping all over the world, Nebraska is the epicenter of all things beef
Enter legislation by Senator Fischer and her colleagues that takes several steps, that they say shifts power back to producers. The bill would set minimum levels of cash sales plus increase fines for violations and create a public library of marketing contracts."
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