On Thursday, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the Amplifying Processing of Livestock in the United States Act, or the A-PLUS Act.
The bill would allow livestock auction markets to hold an ownership interest in, finance, or participate in the management or operation of a packing facility that has a slaughter capacity of less than 2,000 animals per day or 700,000 animals per year.
Currently livestock auction yards are NOT allowed to finance or manage processing facilities – a regulation that dates back to terminal livestock markets in the 1900s when there was little separation between buying and selling agents.
USCA President Brooke Miller issued the following statement:
“The Packers & Stockyards Act is over one hundred years old – it’s time to modernize parts of this historic legislation that no longer make sense in the modern world.
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