NAMI: MEAT AND POULTRY INDUSTRY FACING HEADWINDS

At a recent hearing of the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, Bryan Burns, Vice President and Associate General Counsel of the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) said the meat and poultry industry was facing economic headwinds, challenges in the courts and hurdles with new regulations but remains resilient with record production.

“I want to emphasize that the industry is incredibly resilient, despite claims to the contrary,” said Burns. “Against challenges such as COVID, supply chain disruptions, labor availability, and the impact of drought, beef production set new records for four consecutive years from 2019 through 2022. Pork production has seen its highest four-year totals over the same period.”

Prior to working for the Meat Institute, Burns spent 20 years in the industry, first as counsel at one of the nation's largest meat and poultry processors and later as General Counsel and VP of Environment, Health and Safety at a smaller poultry company.

The hearing entitled, “A Review of Animal Agriculture Stakeholder Priorities,” was chaired by Subcommittee Chairman Tracey Mann (R-Kan.) and Subcommittee Ranking Member, Representative Jim Costa (D-Cal.).

At the hearing, Burns conveyed the priorities of meat and poultry packers and processors which included:

PROPOSITION 12:

“It will embolden anti-animal ag groups to pursue burdensome laws elsewhere and will open the door to chaos in interstate commerce through state-by-state trade barriers, not just for meat and poultry products, but for any products not meeting the standards set by another state,” said Burns. “Industry needs certainty. But any federal solution requires careful drafting to ensure it is legally sufficient yet not vulnerable to challenges in the courts.”

ADMINISTRATION’S PROPOSED RULES UNDER THE PACKER AND STOCKYARDS ACT:

“The Administration claims the proposals are needed because the injury to competition standard is an insurmountable bar for plaintiffs and eliminating it will help rein in the big companies,” said Burns. “However, the small, family owned poultry company I once worked for suffered a $14.5 million verdict in a Packers and Stockyards case decided under the injury to competition standard, an amount large enough to drive it to the verge of bankruptcy. The result was that the company was acquired by an owner outside the United States.”

LABOR SHORTAGES:

DF: I don’t think being on the island has really impacted us negatively one way or the other. We’ve traveled a lot, met a lot of other farmers and livestock producers in other parts of Canada, and we all seem to have the same issues and same concerns.

CMB: I understand that your farm was the first in Atlantic Canada to be involved in the TESA program.

DF: Yes, I think we were the first farm east of Ontario as far as I understand.

“We are pleased that House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Penn.) plans to establish an agricultural workforce working group within the House Agriculture Committee,” said Burns. “Currently, meat packing and processing facilities are not eligible to employ workers under the H-2A visa program for agricultural guest workers -- even though we are the essential harvest stage of the livestock industry. We urge the working group to consider the workforce needs of our industry as it deliberates. We are essential to the food supply. We would welcome the opportunity to be part of the discussions so that a solution can be found that works for all of agriculture.”

I’m not sure why the eastern associations wouldn’t have previously nominated anybody because there are many farms here on PEI doing every bit as much as we are as to attain a high level of sustainability. Anyway, we were very surprised when the PEI Cattleman’s Association nominated our farm.

CMB: And then you were attending the Canadian Beef conference in Calgary and you won.

REAUTHORIZATION OF THE LIVESTOCK MANDATORY REPORTING (LMR) ACT:

“Since 2020, Congress has extended LMR’s five-year authorization annually in appropriations legislation. NAMI continues to support, a clean, five-year reauthorization of LMR uncoupled from the Farm Bill.”

DF: Yeah! That was a very nice moment for us. But I don’t like to use the word win actually. However, being recognized for our commitment was a real honour. If you want to know the truth, it was a pretty humbling experience. As I said to CBC when they phoned me after the conference, I was just floored, really couldn’t believe it.

The most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows meat and poultry processing is a $266.99 billion industry employing 526,849 people directly and supporting many more jobs up and down stream in the value chain across both rural and urban communities.

CMB: So now that you have been recognized, do you think that will draw more attention and garner more nominations out of Atlantic Canada going forward?

DF: Absolutely. We’ve gotten a lot of good press highlighting the island cattle industry. I’m positive you’ll see more farms in our neck of the woods nominated next year. And I have to give the Canadian Cattleman’s Association recognition for choosing a farm from Prince Edward Island. We are small players in the national beef industry and I think it was a real credit to their organization to recognize us. They treated all the nominees royally and it was a real class act. It was a wonderful experience.

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% of the United States’ output of meat and 70% of turkey production.

https://www.yesgroiup.ca

RISE IN FARM-TO-FORK BUYING HAS BEEN FUELED BY THE PANDEMIC

By James Chaarani, CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

Some cattle farmers say they're seeing an increased interest in their beef from customers who are buying directly from their farms. Mark Reusser, the vicepresident of Waterloo Federation of Agriculture and a director with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, points to the pandemic as the reason for this.

"COVID was a time, I guess, for reflection," Reusser told CBC News. "We couldn't do the things that we could normally do so people thought about food for one thing — where they get it, the quality of it, where it comes from, who produces it."

Reusser said when the borders closed at the beginning of the pandemic and food was scarce for a short period of time, people were wondering "is there an alternative? Where else can we go?"

This idea would appear to ring true for Doug Dedman, a farmer in New Dundee, Ont. He'd seen the interest in his beef ramp up about 18 months ago.

"People are starting to become, I would say, informed," Dedman explained. "We get a lot of requests about grass fed, is one of the things that people are looking for — grass fed — and then they also … are asking questions around, are you raising these animals yourself?"

"And so, I would say that when we're getting those questions and people are interested, they're consumers that are trying to educate themselves about the food that they're eating."

Dedman said that people who care about how they're bringing up the cattle are putting in the orders, versus those who are looking to save a buck by buying right from the farm, who rarely become customers.

SELLING OUT OF FARM-TO-FORK BEEF

Angela Cammaert of Cammaert Farms in West Lorne, Ont. has seen even more of an increase in demand than Dedman — they're entirely sold out of beef for 2023.

Wanting Choice

Lorne and has been buying from the Cammaert's for over a year. It's something they'd never done before on this scale.

"What I really was focused on is choice for my family," she said. "Choice in terms of how meat is raised, choice in terms of where I buy and who I buy from."