New tariffs are raising concerns among agricultural leaders, and Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer didn’t hold back when addressing the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock earlier this week. Speaking during a hearing led by Ranking Member Jim Costa of California, Schweitzer highlighted the potential challenges these tariffs could create for farmers and ranchers. Rusty Halvorson reports.
Here are President Schweitzer’s full opening remarks:
“Thank you, Chairman Mann and Ranking Member Costa, for the invitation to testify today. My name is Walter Schweitzer and I am the President of Montana Farmers Union.
“I am a third-generation Montana farmer. All of my grandparents homesteaded in the state. I raise Registered Black Angus cattle, hay, and grain. I am also an international agriculture consultant and have been involved in international trade. My testimony today will mostly be about two themes: competitive markets and reducing uncertainty.
“I believe we must build a more resilient food system, one that is more diverse than the one we have today, with additional local and regional production, markets, and infrastructure. During the pandemic, we saw how fragile our highly consolidated food system is. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
“When I first started farming, we had several packing plants, flour mills, bakeries, and home-delivered milk in most of our major communities. Now almost all of these are gone. We had family-owned grocery stores in every small community that had shelves full of Montana-produced food. Now most of the food produced in Montana is shipped a thousand miles away to be processed, packaged, and shipped back to large corporate-owned grocery stores. This is not a resilient food supply, and our food security is at risk.
“We can start addressing these problems by focusing on one of Montana’s biggest businesses: the cattle industry. Prices are relatively high today, but market volatility and uncertainty will remain high without more oversight of competition laws.
“For beef, just four firms control more than 80 percent of packing. Cattle ranchers are hesitant to reinvest in rebuilding their herds when they are at the mercy of four large multinational packers.
“We must push back against the monopolies with strong enforcement of competition laws. For over a century, the Packers and Stockyards Act has protected the ability of independent family farmers and ranchers to compete in a fair and open marketplace, without fear of retaliation or discrimination. But those protections eroded– until the last few years. Recent updates to the Packers and Stockyards Act strengthened protections for family livestock producers. Lawmakers should maintain these common-sense, farmer-focused actions.
“We should better equip USDA to enforce these rules by passing the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act, which would dedicate more resources to fight monopolistic practices in livestock markets.
“The cattle sector would be more competitive with passage of the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act to ensure a robust cash market for cattle.
“Passing and enforcing a strong agricultural right to repair law would save American farmers $4 billion per year in repair costs and $3 billion in crop loss due to down time each year.
“Another way to address the lack of competition is by starting our own marketing channels. Montana Farmers Union worked with several direct-to-market producers to form meat processing cooperatives – like the Montana Premium Processing Co-op and Glacier Processing Co-op – that leveraged USDA grants and low-interest loans to build new plants. Ranchers in our co-ops now have additional markets and consumers have more choices to purchase locally.
“We also need to make sure that consumers know what they’re buying. Truthful and accurate labels are important to American producers and helpful for consumers. That’s why Farmers Union supports the bipartisan American Beef Labeling Act, which requires mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef. I urge you to reinstate COOL to make markets fairer and more competitive for American cattle producers and consumers.
“There are many livestock producers who are facing a lot more uncertainty due to early actions by the administration to pause federal grants and layoff tens of thousands of federal workers.
“Some farmers and ranchers voluntarily enroll in USDA’s conservation programs to improve their farm operation and protect natural resources. Many farmers have told us they are not being reimbursed. Even if the funds eventually come through, the uncertainty is bad for long-term planning.
“I hope that this subcommittee will keep a close eye on these cuts and how they affect farmers and ranchers.
“Finally, one of the best ways to reduce uncertainty in the livestock sector is to advance a strong farm bill that includes improved livestock disaster and insurance offerings. The farm bill is long overdue and I urge you to push back against proposed agriculture, conservation, and nutrition cuts. I believe that investing in food security is national security and should be as much of a priority as investing in our military.
“Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to answering your questions.”