ICYMI: Rounds Discusses Nationwide Effort with Cattle Producers

WASHINGTON – Last night, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) took part in a virtual town hall with cattle producers to discuss his nationwide effort to address meatpacker concentration issues in the cattle industry.

During the town hall, Rounds spoke about his open letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland pointing out price discrepancies between live cattle and boxed beef. Rounds and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) are asking the attorney general to examine whether the control large meatpackers have over the beef processing market violates U.S. antitrust laws and principles of fair competition. They are inviting all members of Congress to join them on this letter.

Rounds is calling on South Dakota constituents to reach out to their family and friends in other states to urge their members of Congress to sign his letter to the attorney general.

“American families are paying way too much for beef at the supermarket and at the same time our independent cattle producers are being underpaid for their product,” Rounds said. “It’s time the Department of Justice investigated the anticompetitive behavior in the beef processing market. It was great to connect with hardworking cattle producers last night to talk about how we can work together to educate people across the country about this issue. We need people from every state to ask their members of Congress to sign onto our letter to the attorney general asking him to examine packer concentration.”

“I thank the Senator for putting this letter out because it really does have substance,” Brett Kenzy, a rancher from Gregory, S.D., said during the town hall. “I think that it’s going to be an incredible tool to go obviously to the attorney general, but [also] to his contemporaries and to a lot of these state legislators as well.”

Click HERE or above to watch the town hall.

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