More than 100 years ago, the U.S. passed its first law to protect farmers and ranchers from concentrated, abusive monopoly power in the livestock industry. Farm Action has demonstrated how the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act) successfully leveled the economic playing field for decades, and how the erosion of its power by courts in the 1980s allowed corporations to gain unprecedented control over meat and poultry production.
The result of all this? Cattle, poultry, and hog farmers are going out of business, workers are subjected to low pay and hazardous conditions, and consumers are facing skyrocketing prices at the grocery store — all while corporations like JBS, Smithfield, and Tyson Foods line their pockets with record profits.