University of Wisconsin Law Professor Peter Carstensen testified before a U.S. Senate committee on April 18, 2007, on the economic challenges facing agricultural producers.
Carstensen, who has focused a significant part of his attention in the last 10 years on specific competitive issues that confront agricultural markets, was part of a group of livestock producers and agricultural experts urging the Senate Agriculture Committee to press legislation designed to reduce market concentration in the meat and poultry markets, arguing that the dominance of large companies has led to lower prices for smaller producers and a limited number of outlets for selling their livestock.
Carstensen told the committee in his statement, ""It is essential that the next farm bill address the problem of creating and maintaining fair, transparent, accessible and efficient markets. The changing characteristics of those markets are steadily eroding the capacity of the American farmer to get the benefit of workable competition."
Carstensen and other members of the group told the Committee that big companies should face congressionally mandated limits on the amount of livestock they can own.
In the overview of his detailed statement, Carstensen said, "The American farmer faces increasingly dysfunctional markets for both the inputs and outputs of the farm. The resulting squeeze threatens the traditional structure of American agriculture and is likely to result in the gradual reduction of many of those producing food and fiber in this country to a kind of economic serfdom. Moreover, the economic results of this transformation will be increased costs to consumers, a long-run reduction in innovation and technological progress in agriculture, as well as impoverishment of rural communities. In sum, the failure of agricultural markets to function efficiently and fairly is going to impose major costs on the entire economy.
"As it considers the next Farm Bill, this Committee and Congress should take account of these pressures and do what it can legislatively to correct the problems and restore fairness, accessibility, transparency and efficiency to those markets."
Submitted by on April 25, 2007
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