OMAHA (DTN) While livestock producers might be seeing tight margins and packer profits remain strong, USDA on Thursday issued a final rule in a long-standing political fight over how to define unfair practices under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
The battle over defining “undue or unreasonable preferences” for meatpackers goes back a dozen years to the 2008 farm bill. The act required USDA to write a rule addressing problems with fair practices for meatpackers. A 2010 proposed rule under the Obama administration was frozen until 2016 after a new Congress effectively blocked USDA from moving forward every year in appropriations bills. The Obama administration proposed a second rule just before leaving office, but work on that bill was suspended early in the Trump administration, and work began again on different interpretations of undue preferences for packers.
How Tyson Foods chairman John Tyson made $600 million by exposing meatpacking workers to coronavirus
The billionaire heir of Tyson Foods, John H. Tyson, has increased his personal wealth by $600 million to $2.2 billion since April.
The vast accumulation of wealth is based upon a staggering loss of life. Tyson’s personal wealth rose as an estimated 11,000 Tyson workers have been infected with the virus, more than any other meatpacking company in the United States. The industry has been a central spreader of the virus, with more than 50,000 infections and 250 deaths. Tyson Foods pays its employees an average wage of only $15.94 an hour, according to the company’s website.