“Where’s the Beef?” was once just a funny (yet successful) advertising slogan. But now, it could soon be an actual question on the minds of many shoppers.
Amid the coronavirus crisis, some are calling attention to the coming meat shortages the United States faces as the virus continues to ravage our economy. Rep. Thomas Massie has been sounding the alarm for weeks, and the Kentucky Republican recently introduced the “PRIME Act” in an effort to address the coming crisis. The congressman is right to be concerned.
Tyson Foods, one of the nation’s largest producers of meat, confirmed Massie’s predictions just this week as it announced a halt in production at many of its plants in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Its CEO warned of a coming break in the supply chain.
Dig a little deeper, and the situation gets even more dire. We could soon see farmers unable to keep their farms afloat, livestock killed in mass with no means to be sold, and hungry families.
For those unfamiliar with agriculture policy, this scenario seems unimaginable. But according to those who’ve spent their years toiling in the amber waves of grain, the problem was merely exasperated by the pandemic, not the result of it.
Limited government advocates have had a heyday recently. We’ve been pointing to the abundance of regulations on our market as a key problem in society for decades. Rarely implemented to protect public health and almost always put in place as a favor to politically connected businesses, these red-tape measures hurt everyone.
Already we’ve seen leaders temporarily repeal regulations in mass as the admission of their presence has hindered the market’s ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus epidemic. As should be suspected by now, the coming meat shortage also traces its way back to existing government interference in the market.
There is no actual shortage in livestock. (Remember, farmers are about to kill their produce needlessly.) Rather, the breakdown is coming on the plant side of the equation where cramped quarters are hazardous. Why can’t farmers sell directly to consumers and circumvent this problem? You guessed it — government regulations.
In 1967, the federal government blocked states from making their own decisions on how meat was processed and promptly handed the power to the Department of Agriculture, or USDA.
What followed was essentially a takeover of control of the industry. Farmers had to travel long distances and sell their livestock to a small number of USDA slaughterhouses instead of to local butchers, small processors, or directly to consumers. This relationship began to severely impact their profit margins as the government was able to force farmers to sell their product for pennies on the dollar. When you limit the number of places the producers can sell, you control the prices.
Even before the current crisis, this was a powder keg of cronyism waiting to blow. The economic model forced on farmers by the government simply doesn’t work. They’re buried in debt as they must finance expensive equipment to do their jobs, yet also must pay all of the costs of raising the animals upfront. And they increasingly see their returns diminish at the end of the equation.
Farmers are boxed in. While “Big Ag” gets bailed out from the ramifications of trade wars and other bad economic policies, small farmers, who make up the bulk of production, are struggling to survive.
To add insult to injury, as our farmers bend over backward to create under the heavy burden of strenuous regulations on our own soil, the USDA continues to import beef from Brazil’s cheaper, unregulated marketplace instead. You wouldn’t know that, though, because in 2013, Congress abolished the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law that would have tipped consumers off.
In response to this pending problem, President Trump has announced plans to label meat production plants “essential” to push them to stay open — claiming that his order would waive their liability should employees or consumers fall ill (um, yikes). Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, but both the legal merits of this policy and its reliance on government control are highly suspect.
Furthermore, Trump’s solution would not actually address the real underlying problem in the equation, which predates the virus. However, Massie’s bill offers a free market solution that could save the industry.
The PRIME Act would repeal regulations and allow states to set their own standards on processing, which in turn could enable farmers to sell their meat directly to consumers or small processors. This is common sense. It’s time to stop letting the government bully our farmers.
Hannah Cox (@HannahCox7) is a libertarian-conservative activist and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
