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Monday, December 23, 2024

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Suspect held after woman set on fire in NY subway car dies; Trump threatens to take back Panama Canal over 'ridiculous' fees; A year of growth for juvenile diversion programs in SD; The ups and downs of combating rural grocery deserts in ND; Report: AZ one of eight Western states that could improve conservation policies.

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Congress passes a last-minute budget stopgap. Trump's second-term tariffs could harm farmers, and future budget cuts could reduce much-needed federal programs.

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Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

MN livestock producers may take concerns to the polls

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Monday, August 26, 2024   

Concerns about consolidation in the meat industry could drive livestock producers to the polls.

Just four companies process about 85% of American beef, according to Reuters, and that kind of monopoly can determine prices - both the cost of beef at the grocery store and the pay producers are getting from livestock sales.

Vice President Kamala Harris in a recent speech promised to support small businesses and crack down on "opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules."

It really will take effort on both those fronts to ensure livestock production is a feasible business, according to Matthew Sheets - an organizer with the Land Stewardship Project.

"It needs to be a two-pronged approach," said Sheets, "taking on the large interests that are consolidating this industry and harming everybody that is attached to it, and supporting the small to mid-sized operators and the people that are farming in a regenerative way. "

A proposed rule would amend regulations under the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to define "unfair practices" as business conduct that harms the market and market participants.

The comment period for that rule ends September 11.

Sheets said he has seen this issue bring people together across the political divide, and said he thinks Minnesotans will be taking the issue to the polls in November.

"People know for a fact that it is causing harm to the communities," said Sheets, "the environment, the farmers that are attached to it, everybody."

While the meat industry has already been consolidated, Sheets said, the dairy industry is still in the beginning stages of that process and policy could help contain it.




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