Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says a recent U.S. district court decision to slow swine inspection line speeds will cause financial harm to independent hog farmers.
During his weekly conference call with farm reporters Monday morning, Senator Grassley said he?s continuing to push back against the court?s ruling to vacate a portion of the USDA New Swine Inspection System rule relating to line speeds at packing plants. The ruling goes into effect Wednesday, June 30th.
?I?m told that six packing plants will be forced to reduce their output, and by extension, their purchase of hogs,? said Grassley. ?This is a 2.5 percent slow down, which may sound like nothing to city people. Farmers already have pigs in line to be slaughtered on a certain date.?
On Friday, Grassley along with Reps. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota and Dusty Johnson of South Dakota sent letters to the USDA and the DOJ urging the Biden Administration to pursue all legal actions to push back on the ruling.
Grassley says small and medium-sized hog farmers will be hit the hardest.
?They will suffer the greatest harm from upstream impact following this ruling,? said Grassley. ?Many farmers ? particularly independent producers ? supplying these six plants will need to find alternative places to slaughter their pigs. Overall, this court ruling will result in significant financial harm to American hog farmers and, ultimately, hurt producers and consumers in Iowa.?
Grassley added hog producers don?t need the added concern of market disruption after dealing with COVID-19 impacts and trade retaliation over the last year.
