The Meat Institute today sent the following letter to President Donald Trump to provide strategies to reduce burdensome regulations and address meat prices for consumers

The following is the text of the letter, dated January 27, 2025, and signed by Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts.

 

 “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, and Meat Institute member companies account for more than 95 percent of U.S. output of these products”

 

 

Dear Mr. President:

Congratulations on your victory and inauguration!  The Meat Institute and its members look forward to working with you and your administration to reduce regulatory burdens and unleash economic prosperity.

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, and Meat Institute member companies account for more than 95 percent of U.S. output of these products.  The Meat Institute provides legislative, regulatory, international affairs, public relations, technical, scientific, and educational services to the meat and poultry packing and processing industry.

The U.S. meat and poultry industry is the economic engine powering the agriculture sector. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, meat and poultry processing is a $227.9 billion industry.  Meat and poultry packers and processors employ more than 532,000 workers, with beef packers paying average hourly wages of $22.  In 2024, the meat and poultry industry produced 26.99 billion pounds of beef, 27.79 billion pounds of pork, 40.2 million pounds of veal, 133.6 million pounds of lamb and mutton, and 52.8 billion pounds of poultry.

During the past four years, food price inflation exacted a substantial toll on American family budgets.  The previous administration stoked inflation by spending trillions of dollars in government relief payments.  That flood of money stimulated demand in an economy struggling with supply constraints.  The predictable result was inflation.  The previous administration responded by subjecting the food industry to more regulation, with additional proposed regulation pending.  These rules and proposals add cost to the production and supply of food, exacerbating food price inflation to the detriment of consumers.

I write to request your administration quickly and effectively implement two of your Executive Orders (EO), Regulatory Freeze Pending Review and Delivering Emergency Price Relief to American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis.  Several regulatory actions taken by the previous administration are (or will be, if finalized) so costly and burdensome, they will drive up the cost of meat and poultry products for consumers. 

To alleviate the regulatory burden and reduce the upward pressure on food prices, the Meat Institute requests the Trump administration take the following actions:

• Direct the Secretary of Agriculture to rescind the final rule, Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Under the Packers and Stockyards Act; 89 Fed. Reg. 16092 (March 6, 2024).  Despite a lack of legal authority and the presence of court precedent to the contrary, the rule attempts to enshrine diversity, equity, and inclusion concepts into a regulation of the Packers and Stockyards Act. 
   
• Direct the Secretary of Agriculture to rescind the final rule, Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems; 90 Fed. Reg. 5146 (January 16, 2025).
   
• Direct the Secretary of Agriculture to withdraw the Proposed Rule and Proposed Determination; Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products; 89 Fed. Reg. 64678 (Aug. 7, 2024).  The proposal should be withdrawn and reproposed as a performance standard with the input of stakeholders.
   
• Direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw the Proposed Rule and Notice of Public Hearing; Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category; 89 Fed. Reg. 4474 (Jan. 23, 2024).  EPA’s economic analysis of the proposal grossly underestimates the cost of compliance.  Indeed, even using EPA’s flawed accounting, 16 meat and poultry facilities would be forced to close as a direct result of the cost of compliance.

Paired with the removal of these costly regulatory impediments, the Meat Institute supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) inspection modernization for pork and poultry processing.  Pork modernization, the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS), was finalized by USDA during your first term, but the provision authorizing facilities to operate above outdated traditional inspection rates (frequently referred to as “line speeds”) was subsequently stopped by a court.  NSIS’s poultry predecessor, the New Poultry Inspection System, was finalized under the Obama Administration without an inspection rate provision. 

The Meat Institute encourages USDA to expeditiously issue Interim Final Rules to allow all interested and compliant modernized pork and poultry facilities to operate above traditional line speed restrictions. 

Thank you for targeting the tremendous regulatory burden imposed on the food and agriculture industry.  We look forward to assisting your administration in identifying and removing regulatory obstacles.