One of the National Farmers Union’s priorities is competition within the livestock industry. Minnesota Farmers Union President Gary Wertish says consolidation is spilling into the whole economy. “On a farmer level, you have three major equipment manufacturers that dominate the industry. We have that in seed, we have that in the meat packing,” Wertish said. “Not that all mergers are bad. But, you know, in 1921, Congress passed the Packers and Stockyards Act to break up, at that time it was, the five big meat packers that dominated the industry. Now we have four companies that dominate the meat packing industry and two of them are foreign-owned.” Wertish says urban areas are seeing it, too.
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