California Ag Network

Tag: The North American Meat Institute

  • North American Meat Institute: PRIME Act is a Food Safety Risk

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) again announced its opposition to the Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act, or the PRIME Act, for the risk it poses to food safety.

    “American consumers rely on rigorous USDA inspection to ensure the safety and quality of their meat and poultry,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “Allowing meat to enter commerce without inspection – and without alerting consumers they are buying uninspected meat — jeopardizes food safety and will undermine consumer confidence in all meat products.”

    The PRIME Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House by Representatives Thomas Massie (R- Ky.) and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine). U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have introduced the same bill in the Senate.

    The PRIME Act would amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act to allow custom slaughter facilities to sell uninspected meat directly to consumers, to restaurants and food service, and at retail.

    Under The Federal Meat Inspection Act, custom slaughter facilities harvest livestock for the personal use of the owner of the animal. The food produced may not enter commerce. There is no continuous inspection and no veterinarian required to assess the health of the livestock.

    Federally inspected facilities, and state inspected facilities with cooperative agreements with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), have inspectors continuously conducting oversight of operations to ensure the safety and quality of meat and poultry and the health and wellness of the livestock. Should a problem occur, products bearing the mark of USDA inspection can be traced to protect consumers.

    “It is important for the American economy and the entire meat value chain that the safety of our meat and poultry is never taken for granted. The meat and poultry industry, and the taxpayer, has invested billions of dollars in food safety protections, research and infrastructure to ensure we have the safest meat in the world,” said Potts. “While this bill may be well intentioned, it poses especially unnecessary risks given the many resources available to help new and small facilities gain inspection from FSIS.”

    Those resources include more than $1 billion in federal technical assistance and financial assistance in the following USDA administered programs:

    Meat and Poultry Inspection Readiness Grants:
    Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity – Technical Assistance Program
    Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program

    Background:

    There are more than 6,500 federally inspected facilities throughout the United States.

    There were 946 plants slaughtering under federal inspection on January 1, 2023

    States with and Without Inspection Programs

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • India’s Market Opens up to US Pork Imports

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) welcomed India’s decision to allow imports of U.S. pork and pork products into the country and thanked the Biden Administration for working to secure increased access for high-quality U.S. meat products to this growing and strategically important export market.

    “U.S. pork producers, processors and packers are going to benefit from the expanded market access that this agreement will bring,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “The Meat Institute is grateful to USDA and USTR for their years of hard work to achieve this outcome.”

    This decision, announced yesterday by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, marks the first time India will allow U.S. pork into the country. The development comes after decades of negotiations between the two countries and the successful revitalization of the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum held in New Delhi last November.

    In 2020, the United States was the world’s third-largest pork producer and second-largest exporter, with global sales of pork and pork products valued at $7.7 billion.

    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.

  • White House Economic Council Not Very Economic

    The North American Meat Institute (Meat Institute) today dismissed another desperate attempt by the White House Economic Council to shift blame for record food inflation to the meat and poultry industry.

    “The White House Economic Council is again demonstrating its ignorance of agricultural economics and the fundamentals of supply and demand,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “This argument is simply a rinse and repeat of their September attempts to blame meat and poultry companies for inflation that is not limited to food, but is being felt across the economy.

    “Beef, pork and poultry all have their own supply and demand market fundamentals. The calculations used by the Economic Counsel awkwardly and misleadingly combine these sectors and the Council’s analysis conveniently excludes data on rising input costs, rising fuel costs, supply chain difficulties and labor shortages that impact the price of meat on the retail shelf. Plus, recent economic data indicates packer (wholesale) margins have fallen by 30-60 percent depending on the species as the industry works through the historic supply chain disruptions of the last 18 months.

    “This cherry picking of data is obvious to all. It is no coincidence this blog post appears on the same day as the Consumer Price Index is released showing gas and energy prices are up nearly 60 percent over the past 12 months which is nearly 10 times the rate of inflation for food.

    “The Economic Council continues to insist market structure is the reason for higher consumer prices of meat and poultry. In beef production for example, the same four firm concentration ratio has been operating in the market for nearly 30 years. Why the sudden inflation?

    “The answer is consumer demand for meat and poultry products has never been higher. Members of the Meat Institute are producing more meat than ever before under extraordinary circumstances to keep our farm economy moving and to put food on American’s tables.”

    About 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: Grassley-Fischer Bill Ignores Economic Fundamentals

    The North American Meat Institute said a new Senate bill ignores the analysis of beef and cattle markets by the country’s leading agricultural economists and the bill’s mandated government intervention will have unintended consequences that will hurt livestock producers and consumers.

    “Beef and cattle markets are dynamic. This fall prices cattle producers received for their livestock have risen without any government interference,” said Julie Anna Potts, President and CEO of the North American Meat Institute. “In a rush to do ‘something,’ this bill would replace the free market with government mandates and harm those it is intended to protect: livestock producers.”

    The Senate bill, which was announced but apparently not finalized because no language has been released, would require packers within a region of the country to purchase a government-mandated minimum number of cattle through negotiated or cash transactions. It would also establish a cattle contract library and loosen confidentiality requirements for USDA’s publication of data.

    No economic analysis of the bill’s effects has been offered to support the legislation.

    “If this bill becomes law,” said Potts, “there will be cattle producers who want alternative marketing arrangements, but will instead be forced to sell on the cash market, and the industry will turn back time to the days of commodity cattle.”

    The Bill Ignores Economic Analysis of the Beef and Cattle Market’s Behavior

    According to one independent analysis using USDA data, since August, prices for producers have been well above the five-year average and above prices in 2020.

    Last month, Texas A&M University published a book called “ The U.S. Beef Supply Chain: Issues and Challenges, ” a collaboration with Texas A&M’s Agricultural and Food Policy Center, national experts, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    In the book the nation’s leading agricultural economists warned members of Congress against mandated minimums on negotiated or cash transactions because it will cost producers in in the form of lower prices: “While some argue that imposing mandatory minimums on negotiated (or cash) transactions would improve price discovery in the fed cattle markets – accruing benefits to the cow/calf producer in the process – authors in this book argue it could have the opposite effect, potentially imposing huge costs that are passed down to cattle producers in the form of lower prices.” (Page xi)

    The Bill Ignores Expert Testimony before House and Senate Agriculture Committees

    In testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Hearing, “Examining Markets, Transparency, and Prices from Cattle Producer to Consumer,” Mark Gardiner, President Gardiner Angus Ranch said this, “Finally, it is my desire to indicate to this group as strongly as I possibly can, please do not create regulations and legislation that have the unintended consequence of harming value-based marketing. Doing so would undo many years of progress for producers such as my family and those of our customers. Onerous legislation has the potential to result in a reversal of quality that is simply unacceptable to consumers. Legislation limiting progress (and ultimately is a detriment to quality beef production) punishes America’s beef producers.”

    “Even if 100 percent of cattle were being sold on the cash market, it doesn’t mean prices would have been any higher than what we recently observed.” Dr. Jayson Lusk, Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, West Lafayette testifying before the House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.

    “Stated directly – without contemporary use of Alternative Marketing Agreements (AMA’s) I believe cattle prices would be lower as production efforts would not align as well with consumer demands.” Glynn T. Tonsor Professor, Dept. of Agricultural Economics Kansas State University testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Hearing, “Examining Markets, Transparency, and Prices from Cattle Producer to Consumer.”

     “After three Congressional hearings featuring the testimony of industry experts and a major economic analysis of the beef supply chain out of Texas A&M, Senators continue to ignore market fundamentals and are attempting to guarantee higher prices for livestock producers,” said Potts. “The industry has resisted allowing the government to pick winners and losers in the past and all sectors of the beef supply chain: cow-calf producers, feeders and packers have benefitted.”

    For more information from the Meat Institute on beef and cattle markets see:

    New Texas A&M Report: Government Interference in Beef & Cattle Markets has Unintended Consequences; Will Cost Producers Billions

    They Said It: Economists, Academics, Industry Agree: Supply, Demand, Labor, Economies of Scale Drive Beef and Cattle Markets

    On Inflation: North American Meat Institute to Secretary Vilsack: Scapegoating Industry Does Not Help Consumer

    On Market Structure and Capacity: Meat Institute’s Public Comments in Response to Secretary Vilsack’s Request for Information on Investments and Opportunities for Meat and Poultry Processing Infrastructure

    NAMI Testimony House Livestock Subcommittee Hearing

  • Meat Institute Joins U.S.-led Sustainable Productivity Growth Coalition, Submits Protein PACT to Food Systems Summit

    The North American Meat Institute today announced that it will join the U.S. government-led multistakeholder Coalition of Action on Sustainable Productivity Growth for Food Security and Resource Conservation to be launched by the Biden administration at the UN Food Systems Summit.

    The Meat Institute also announced that more than 96 percent of comments received during a public consultation launched in July supported its draft sustainability framework and the Protein PACT for the People, Animals, and Climate of Tomorrow, which the Meat Institute has submitted to the United Nations Food Systems Summit (FSS) commitment hub.

    The Meat Institute expects to announce in November ambitious, data-driven targets to publicly verify progress on the 100 metrics in its sustainability framework, which aims to:

    • Optimize contributions to healthy land, air, and water
    • Be the leading source of high-quality protein in balanced diets
    • Provide the most humane care and raise healthy animals
    • Produce safe products without exception
    • Support a diverse workforce and ensure safe workplaces

    North American Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts commented:

    “High-quality animal protein is at the center of healthy diets, and our commitments to economic, social, and environmental sustainability also place us at the center of solutions for a healthy future.

    “We are proud to join the U.S.-led coalition on sustainable agricultural productivity and to feature the Protein PACT in UN Food Systems Summit outcomes as the first initiative of its kind to unite farmers and processors in a common vision for transparent communication, continuous improvement, and ambitious commitments to ensure the sustainability of the beef, pork, poultry, and dairy people around the world rely on every day.”

    Learn more about the Protein PACT and the Meat Institute’s draft sustainability framework here.

    About the Meat Institute: The North American Meat Institute is the 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 manufacture the equipment and ingredients needed to produce the safest and highest quality meat and poultry products. To learn more, visit www.MeatInstitute.org.

    About the Protein PACT: The Protein PACT unites partners across animal protein in the first-ever joint effort to accelerate the entire animal protein 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 for our efforts, 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 sustainable, healthy diets. To learn more, visit www.TheProteinPACT.org.