California Ag Network

Tag: NAMI

  • New Data Highlights Continuous Improvement, Sustainability Across Meat Sector

    In the second year of the meat sector’s pioneering data collection and reporting on five key focus areas for continuous improvement, the number of companies submitting data grew by nearly 60% and now covering more than half of all establishments operated by Meat Institute members.

    With 93% of the Meat Institute’s largest member companies (more than 2000 employees) submitting data, the report reflects commitments and actions covering an estimated 90% of meat sold in the United States. The Meat Institute’s metrics and goals align closely with on-farm efforts in beef, pork, poultry and feed to drive supply chain-wide sustainability.

    Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts commented:

    “98% of American households purchase meat, putting our sector undoubtedly at the center of sustaining healthy diets, healthy communities, and a healthy planet for generations to come.

    The Meat Institute has a clear vision for 2030 and has established measurable targets to verify progress along the way, including through this game-changing data collection and reporting which will incentivize sector-wide implementation of best practices and allow us to identify gaps where further resources are needed to achieve ambitious goals.”

    Among the Meat Institute’s five focus areas for continuous improvement, one key target is the Meat Institute’s aim for 100% of members to have set a science-based emissions reduction target by 2030. To date, 14 Meat Institute general members representing the majority of meat sold in the United States, plus 10 supplier/allied members, have set or publicly committed to set targets verified by the Science-Based Targets Initiative.

    Of establishments reporting data, 66% are covered by a company commitment to set scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction goals; 62% are covered by a company commitment to set scope 3 emissions reduction goals. In September, the Meat Institute and the UN Global Compact Network USA jointly released a practical tool to help meat companies conduct emissions surveys, the first critical step in the path to setting science-based targets.

    Aiding another key target to help families facing hunger access enough high-quality protein, Meat Institute members donate tens of millions of dollars and meals to food banks and charities across the country every year. The majority of companies reporting data contributed to food banks and charities in 2022. Examples of food security actions in this reporting period include:

    • Bob Evans Farms announced a four-year partnership with Mid-Ohio Food Bank to donate more than $1 million in cash and food contributions.
    • Hormel Foods and Tyson Foods partnered to support communities affected by the Maui wildfires, with Hormel donating more than 264,000 cans of SPAM and Tyson donating more than 100,000 lbs of protein.
    • Smithfield Foods donated 28,000 lbs of protein to Florida communities devastated by Hurricane Idalia.
    • Swaggertys has donated nearly 35,000 lbs of frozen sausage to local food banks and charity organizations so far in 2023.

    The Meat Institute’s full 2023 continuous improvement report is available HERE.

    About North American Meat Institute

    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include over 350 meat packing and processing companies, the majority of which have fewer than 100 employees, and account for over 95 percent of the United States’ output of meat and 70 percent of turkey production. To learn more, visit MeatInstitute.org.

    About the Protein PACT: The Protein PACT unites partners across animal protein to accelerate the entire sector’s progress toward global sustainable development goals for healthy people, healthy animals, healthy communities, and a healthy environment. Protein PACT partners are establishing transparent baselines and benchmarks, setting ambitious targets for continuous improvement, collecting data to verify and transparently report on progress, and launching comprehensive communications about animal protein’s unique place in healthy diets and sustainable food systems. To learn more, visit www.TheProteinPACT.org.

  • North American Meat Institute Recognizes Environmental Achievement Award Winners

    The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) recognized more than 200 meat and poultry plants at the 2023 Environmental, Labor and Safety+ Conference in Carlsbad, California for their positive environmental impact achievements. Fifteen additional establishments that went above and beyond were granted Environmental Achievement Awards for their progress with emissions reduction, energy conservation, packaging/food waste reduction, technological innovation, and water conservation.

    “NAMI congratulates these companies and their leadership for ensuring their products contribute to a sustainable food system,” said NAMI President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “Their hard work and innovation will ensure the meat and poultry industry continues to employ the highest standards and latest technology to produce wholesome, safe, nutritious products that consumers can be proud to put on their plates.”

    The NAMI Environmental Achievement Awards are given to NAMI member companies that go beyond environmental compliance by designing and successfully implementing an innovative plant upgrade or environmental program. The Environmental Achievement Award winners represent establishments operated by JBS, Pilgrim’s, Smithfield and SugarCreek. The winners are as follows:

    Category
    1st Place
    2nd Place
    3rd Place
    Emissions Reduction
    JBS – Tolleson
    Smithfield – Sioux Falls
    Pilgrim’s – Canton Complex
    Energy Conservation
    JBS – Green Bay
    JBS USA Hyrum Beef
    SugarCreek Packing Co. – Cambridge City
    Packaging and/or Food Waste Reduction
    Smithfield Packaged Meat – Kinston
    JBS USA Grand Island Beef
    Smithfield – Des Moines
    Technological Innovation
    JBS – Plainwell
    Pilgrim’s – Talmo Hatchery
    SugarCreek Packing Co. – Washington Court House
    Water Conservation
    Pilgrim’s – Arcadia
    Smithfield Packaged Meats – Carroll
    Smithfield – Milan

    The Environmental Recognition Awards honor a company’s dedication to continuous environmental improvement, as witnessed by the development and implementation of Environmental Management Systems. The Environmental Recognition Award winners include establishments throughout North America operated by: American Foods Group, Caviness Beef Packers, CS Beef Packers, Clemens Food Group, FPL Foods, Golden State Foods, JBS, Land O’ Frost, Maple Leaf Foods, OSI Group, Pilgrim’s, Smithfield Foods, SugarCreek Packing, Triumph Foods and West Liberty Foods.

    Companies that earned these awards also reported data in 2022 for The Protein PACT, which is uniting the largest-ever industry effort to strengthen animal protein’s contributions to healthy people, healthy animals, healthy communities, and a healthy environment.

    About the North American Meat Institute: The North American Meat Institute is a leading voice for the meat and poultry industry. The Meat Institute’s members process the vast majority of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, and poultry, as well as manufactures the equipment and ingredients needed to produce safe, high quality meat and poultry products.

  • FSIS’ New Label Proposal for Meat & Poultry Will Raise Prices for Consumers

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) today said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) latest attempt at proposed rules for a “Product of the USA” label for meat products are again likely to result in trade retaliation from Canada and Mexico costing American consumers and businesses billions of dollars.

    “Unfortunately, this proposed rule is problematic for many reasons. USDA should have considered more than public sentiment on an issue that impacts international trade,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “Our members make considerable investments to produce beef, pork, lamb, veal and poultry products in American facilities, employing hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. and with processes overseen by USDA inspectors. This food should be allowed to be labeled a ‘Product of the USA.’”

    At issue is a rule proposed by FSIS that would limit claims so only products made from livestock born, raised, harvested, and processed in America could be labeled a “Product of the USA.”

    Although the proposed label is voluntary, this overly prescriptive definition link to proposed rule here > would exclude many popular products made in America, by workers in America, and under inspection from the USDA. Those products include certain brands of popular American foods like hot dogs, sausage, bacon, ground beef, sliced ham and much, much more.

    The proposed voluntary “Product of the USA” label will have a discriminatory effect, causing meat packers and processors, who wish to make the claim, to segregate cattle, hogs, and meat from other nations.

    This rule uses the same standard as the mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) statute repealed by Congress in late 2015.

    Congress repealed COOL because Canada and Mexico challenged COOL as a nontariff trade barrier. The U.S. government lost four times before the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the WTO authorized Canada and Mexico to retaliate and levy more than $1 billion in tariffs on goods ranging from meat to wine, chocolate, jewelry and furniture.

    Importantly, the proposed “Product of the USA” rule would be broader than mandatory COOL because it also includes processed products and products intended for foodservice, which were not subject to mandatory COOL.

    Canada and Mexico still retain that authorization and could initiate retaliation with no further action by the WTO.

    In addition to increasing the price of meat and poultry and other goods for consumers, the proposed rule is also problematic because:

    • It conflicts with federal law: see The Federal Meat Inspection Act and The Tariff Act;
    • It will place additional duties on FSIS, which is already overburdened and understaffed.
    • It is a significant change from FSIS’ stated intention provided just three years ago when the agency denied a United States Cattlemen’s Association petition on the label and said it planned to initiate rulemaking to:

    “limit ‘Product of USA’ and certain other voluntary U.S. origin statements to meat products derived from livestock that were slaughtered and processed in the United States.”

    For more background on the problems with the proposed rule and country of origin labeling, including statistics on meat and poultry demand, consumer sentiment and effects on the beef and pork markets see this question and answer document.

    About North American Meat Institute
    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include over 325 meat packing and processing companies, most of which have fewer than 100 employees, and together account for the vast majority of meat and turkey production in over 800 facilities.

  • Meat and Poultry Industry Prove Resilience

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) today released the following statement in response to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service report on Agricultural Competition and the first in a series of rules changes the Administration is proposing under the Packers and Stockyards Act:

    “Despite what the White House says, the meat and poultry industry proved to be remarkably resilient during the pandemic,” said Julie Anna Potts, President and CEO of the Meat Institute. “Following the challenges of the spring of 2020, the industry acted immediately to reduce cases of COVID associated with workers in meat and poultry facilities reducing case rates to well below national averages even during the Delta and Omicron surges. (go here for actual reported case rates)

    “USDA’s own data tells us that in both 2020 and 2021, throughout the pandemic, regardless of slowdowns in processing, there was record beef production. This is resiliency by definition.”[1]

    “In the beef and cattle markets, once packers processed the backlog of cattle due to pandemic slowdowns, prices for producers rose to seven year highs in 2021, and now in 2022 prices are 17.5 percent above 2021 prices.

    “Unfortunately, due to the Biden inflationary economy, producers don’t benefit as much from higher prices because they struggle with high input costs for feed, fuel, and fertilizer.

    “The Biden Administration is once again blaming businesses for higher consumer prices when its own policies have created inflation throughout the economy.

    “Industry concentration is not the reason for higher consumer prices for beef, as the Meat Institute has proved time and again, the four firm concentration ratio has been in place for nearly 30 years holding prices low for consumers.

    “While the Meat Institute supports transparency in meat and poultry markets, we are still reviewing the rule proposed today. And we remain concerned about further government intrusion in the market through possible proposed rules mentioned in the Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making.”

    About North American Meat Institute

    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include over 350 meat packing and processing companies, the majority of which have fewer than 100 employees, and account for over 95 percent of the United States’ output of meat and 70 percent of turkey production.

    [1] USDA Livestock Slaughter 2020 Summary, Record High Red Meat Production for 2020;  USDA Livestock Slaughter 2021 Summary, Total Red Meat and Beef Production at Record High in 2021

  • Meat Institute Recognizes Environmental and Worker Safety Award Winners

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) recognized hundreds of meat and poultry establishments for their positive environmental impact and worker safety achievements at the 2022 Environmental, Labor and Safety Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

    “The Meat Institute congratulates these companies and their leadership to ensure the safety and health of workers and our environment,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “Their hard work and innovation will ensure the meat and poultry industry continues to employ the highest standards and latest technology to produce wholesome, safe, nutritious products that exceed customer expectations.”

    The Environmental Recognition Awards were developed to honor a company’s dedication to continuous environmental improvement, as witnessed by the development and implementation of Environmental Management Systems. The Environmental Award Winners can be found here.

    The Worker Safety Recognition Awards honor plants that have achieved a high level of safety performance as part of the continuing effort to reduce occupational injury and illness. The Worker Safety Award Winners can be found here.

    Companies that earned these awards complement the Protein PACT’s efforts to strengthen animal protein’s contributions to healthy people, healthy animals, healthy communities and a healthy environment.

    The Protein PACT’s website launched earlier this year and can be found on Facebook and Instagram.

    About the North American Meat Institute: The North American Meat Institute is a leading voice for the meat and poultry industry. The Meat Institute’s members process the vast majority of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, and poultry, as well as manufactures the equipment and ingredients needed to produce safe, high quality meat and poultry products.

  • Meat Institute Supports Agreement to Increase Safeguard Trigger Level for Beef Exports to Japan

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) said that today’s U.S.-Japan deal to increase the beef safeguard trigger level under the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement will increase the American beef industry’s ability to meet Japan’s growing demand for U.S. beef.

    “The Meat Institute welcomes this agreement that will help the U.S. beef industry earn greater market access to Japan,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “The Meat Institute thanks the Biden Administration for their dedicated work securing this deal.”

    In addition to increasing market growth for U.S. beef into Japan, the new three-trigger safeguard mechanism will decrease the likelihood that Japan will impose higher tariffs on U.S. beef.

    In 2021, Japan was the United States’ largest beef volume market (320,738 metric tons) and second largest value destination (more than $2.3B).

    The agreement’s three-trigger mechanism – whereby all three triggers must be hit for Japan to implement the safeguard and impose a higher tariff – are:

    1. Imports from the United States must exceed the original beef safeguard trigger level under the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement;
    2. The aggregate volume of beef imports from the United States and the original signatories of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) must exceed the CPTPP beef safeguard; and
    3. Imports from the United States must exceed the total amount of beef imports from the United States during the previous year.

    More details are available in the U.S. Trade Representative’s press release.

    About the North American Meat Institute: The North American Meat Institute is a leading voice for the meat and poultry industry. The Meat Institute’s members process the vast majority of U.S. beef, pork, lamb, and poultry, as well as manufactures the equipment and ingredients needed to produce safe, high quality meat and poultry products.

  • Congress Blocks Industry Input on Cattle Contract Library Pilot Program

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) said the Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill creates a Cattle Contract Library pilot program requiring beef packers to report private business information to the government that will then be published, but blocks public comment on the Biden Administration’s proposed rules for the program.

    “Congress and the Administration say they value transparency in the beef and cattle market yet they burry this rider without debate in a giant spending bill and direct USDA to create the pilot program without any feedback from beef companies or cattle producers,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “There will be no opportunity for companies to provide valuable perspective on what information should be included or how it should be reported.”

    Under the pilot, Meat Institute members who purchase beef cattle with an Alternative Marketing Arrangement will be legally obligated to report proprietary and sensitive data to the government for publication.

    The law is vague and provides no guardrails for the type or amount of data and leaves program development up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agriculture Marketing Service. (AMS)

    Finally, the law contains a provision that allows AMS to promulgate the rules without a comment period as normally required by law.

    “The Congress directs the Administration to create another onerous USDA program with the sole purpose of collecting private business information and making it public without any input from the regulated industry,” said Potts. “This is not transparent or responsible.”

    Background on Transparency in Beef and Cattle Markets

    There is robust price discovery in the cattle and beef markets. Congress established and USDA administers the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act (LMR) program to facilitate open, transparent price discovery and provide all market participants, both large and small, with comparable levels of market information for slaughter cattle and beef, as well as other species.

    Under LMR, packers must report to AMS daily the prices they pay to procure cattle, and other information, including slaughter data for cattle harvested during a specified time period and with net prices, actual weights, dressing percentages, percent of beef grading Choice, and price ranges, and then AMS publishes the anonymized data.

    AMS publishes 24 daily and 20 weekly cattle reports each week. Weekly reports start Monday afternoon and end the next Monday morning. These reports cover time periods, regions, and activities and the data include actual cattle prices.

    Further, packers report all original sale beef transactions in both volume and price through the Daily Boxed Beef Report. This data is reported twice daily, at 11:00 a.m. and at 3:00 p.m. Central Time. The morning report covers market activity since 1:30 p.m. of the prior business day until 9:30 a.m. of the business day. The afternoon report is cumulative, including all market activity in the morning plus all additional transactions between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and is on the USDA DataMart website. The boxed beef report covers both individual beef item sales and beef cutout values and current volumes, both of which are derived from the individual beef item sales data.

    About North American Meat Institute

    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include over 350 meat packing and processing companies, the majority of which have fewer than 100 employees, and account for over 95 percent of the United States’ output of meat and 70 percent of turkey production.

  • New York Times Misses Mark on Beef Market

    North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) — The New York Times’ The Daily podcast’s examination of the beef and cattle markets is simply wrong.

    The beef and cattle industry is a complex marvel of American ingenuity with innovations that have allowed the US beef industry to produce more meat with fewer cattle, while improving sustainability, food safety, affordability, worker safety and beef quality.

    There are many steps in the beef value chain: cow calf operators, feeders, packers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, and food service entities. To suggest only packers have a role in determining prices is misleading.

    The Times narrowed its focus to the struggles of one moment in a global pandemic and ignored that since the summer of 2021, prices for cattle producers have rebounded.

    In fact, cattle producers are earning the highest prices for their animals since 2014, which was the previous highest year on record. Multiple agricultural economists have predicted in congressional testimony, op-eds, and reports that, given a black swan event such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the markets have behaved predictably. They also predict that the cattle herd in America will shrink over the next two to three years, drawing down supply.

    The laws of supply and demand apply to packers as well as producers. While we cannot predict the future, we can learn from the past.

    In 2014, the last year of record profit margins for cattle producers, due to drought and other market conditions, there was a shortage of cattle and beef packers lost money. This led some of them to close packing facilities or to go out of business.

    The podcast leads the listener to believe that beef industry consolidation is increasing when it has had the same four firm ratio for nearly 30 years.

    If The Daily’s listeners would like to learn more about beef packing and processing, they can go to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s economists for the facts.

    Supply and demand:

    Packers do not always profit:

    Beef prices rising at retail:

    Packer share of consumer dollar is the lowest:

    About North American Meat Institute

    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include more than 350 meat packing and processing companies, the majority of which have fewer than 100 employees, and account for more than 95 percent of the United States’ output of meat and 70 percent of turkey production.

  • CA Court Halts Enforcement of Prop 12 with Concern for Pork Supply Chain

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) today praised the ruling issued by the Superior Court for Sacramento County in California to halt enforcement of Proposition 12 (Prop 12 or the law) because the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is more than two years late finalizing complicated and costly regulations.

    “Judge Arguelles’ decision recognizes the complexity of the pork supply chain and the burdensome and costly provisions of Prop 12,” said President and CEO of the Meat Institute, Julie Anna Potts. “To enforce the law without final regulations leaves the industry unsure of how to comply or what significant changes must be made to provide pork to this critical market.”

    The ruling delays enforcement until 180 days after the final rules go into effect. 

    The ruling, California Hispanic Chambers Of Commerce vs. Karen Ross, can be found here.

    The North American Meat Institute and its members are opposed to Prop 12 and urged the State of California to delay its implementation of the law due to the risk of criminal sanctions and civil litigation for non-compliance.

    About North American Meat Institute
    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include over 350 meat packing and processing companies, the majority of which have fewer than 100 employees, and account for over 95 percent of the United States’ output of meat and 70 percent of turkey production.

  • Meat & Poultry Industry not to Blame for Inflation

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) said consumers saw increased meat prices in 2021 because of labor shortages, greater consumer demand, supply chain problems and other factors experienced by most sectors of the economy.

     “Inflation is hurting consumers by erasing the wage gains workers received due to the tight labor market and the pandemic,” said Julie Anna Potts, President and CEO of the North American Meat Institute. “It is no wonder the Biden Administration and some members of Congress would rather hold press conferences and hearings instead of addressing the labor shortage and supply chain bottlenecks.”

    The Meat Institute submitted additional testimony for a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law called, Reviving Competition, Part 5: Addressing the Effects of Economic Concentration on Americas Food Supply.

    The testimony is here.

    The Meat Institute provided important context to antitrust allegations.

    “The meat packing industry has been, and continues to be, one of the most highly scrutinized industries when it comes to antitrust review,” said Potts in the testimony submitted. “The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Packers and Stockyards Division (P&S) is uniquely charged, by statute, to provide on-going oversight for fair business practices and to ensure competitive markets in the livestock, meat, and poultry industries.  Additionally, any potential merger or acquisition regulators believe threatens ‘too much market power’ is subject to review by the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission.  The last proposed merger of two of the ‘big four’ fed cattle slaughterers occurred in 2008 – and it was blocked by the Department of Justice.”

    About North American Meat Institute
    The Meat Institute is the United States’ oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products. NAMI members include over 350 meat packing and processing companies, the majority of which have fewer than 100 employees, and account for over 95 percent of the United States’ output of meat and 70 percent of turkey production.