‘USDA is in denial’: Thomas Massie urges action on ‘supply problem’ as farmers euthanize livestock

“I started worrying about this over a month ago when I saw farmers, dairymen, pouring out milk,” the Kentucky Republican said. “And I woke up the next day and I realized, you know what, it’s one thing when consumers see milk poured out, but it’s another thing when animals get shot and buried on farms, and they’re in the supermarkets trying to buy food, and it’s not there.”

“I just heard from a friend, a former employee, whose family lives in Nebraska, that a farm next to their family shot 1,200 pigs yesterday,” he added. “This is troubling, and I tried to tell the USDA that this was coming. The USDA is in denial. They’ve said it’s a demand problem, not a supply problem. Well, that may have been the case back when the restaurants shut down and the demand shifted, but now we’re moving into the supply problem.”

Massie explained how meat goes from the farm to the consumer, passing through a “bridge” of meat processing plants that are struggling to stay open during the pandemic.

“Those big meat processors, like you mentioned, Smithfield and Tyson, they’re shutting down, and literally — not just a few percent of the nation’s ability to process meat is shutting down, it’s like 20% in some cases,” he said, adding that farmers are being forced to euthanize their animals to make room for new stock as meat processors shutter hours to slow the spread of the disease and are unable to take in supply.

“Animals are born on a farm every day. Whether it’s chickens that are being hatched, or sows that are having baby piglets, or cattle that are having cows, they’re born every day, and the other animals need to leave the farm and be processed,” he explained. “Otherwise, you have this huge population on the farm. You run out of space, and the farmer runs out of food to feed the animals. So, the only humane thing a farmer can do is euthanize the animal.”

The Illinois Farm Bureau warned on Wednesday that supermarkets in the states may have limited meat options as several processing plants closed citing health concerns for their workers. A day prior, President Trump announced plans to sign an executive order under the Defense Production Act to order meat processing plants to reopen as agricultural analysts urge action to address widening delays in the meat processing industry.

Massie tweeted four images on Thursday that showed him hauling two cattle to a local meat processing plant. The processor was able to take Massie’s cattle, though he told the Kentucky Republican that there was a bottleneck at the plant that was causing delays into August.

“Hauled two cattle to the processor at 5:30am this morning. Made this appointment in January,” he wrote. “Now they are backed up until August, which is unfortunately kind of normal for this over-regulated system of marketing wholesome locally raised food.”