The Organization for Competitive Markets is leading the charge against the Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, H.R.4417 with the companion bill S.2019 in the Senate. This legislation was introduced in the Senate by Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and in the House by Representative Ashley Hinson (R-IA).
The Organization for Competitive Markets is joined in opposition to the EATS Act by a number of farming associations. These include the Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association, Kansas Cattlemen's Association, National Dairy Producers Organization and many other farming groups. Prominent pork producers, Clemens Food Group, Hormel Foods and Niman Ranch that have invested in Proposition #12-compliant housing do not support the EATS Act. JBS USA has recently purchased conforming facilities from TriOak Farms in Iowa.
The Organization for Competitive Markets is characterizing the EATS Act as “an assault on states’ rights”. The principal purpose of the proposed legislation, based on the King Amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill, is intended to invalidate California Proposition #12 and Massachusetts Question #3. The EATS bill will benefit pork producers who have yet to convert to group housing for sows and their packers. The opponents of the EATS Act are emphasizing the ownership of Smithfield Foods demonizing the Company on the basis of ownership by the WH Group of China.
The intent of the campaign is to prevent the EATS Act from being incorporated into the 2023 Farm Bill or alternatively passed as a free-standing bill.
Mike Schultz, founder of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association and Vice-president for the Organization for Competitive Markets, stated, “It’s a damn shame to see my senator, Roger Marshall, sell out Kansas to help increase profits for Chinese-owned corporations like Smithfield.” He added, “Our elected officials and their staff need to remember they work for us, the American taxpayer, and not the other way around.”
The OCM campaign has placed advertisements opposing EATS in Politico Morning and will continue their activities and lobbying through 2023 or until the Farm Bill is finalized.
Legal scholars have pointed out that the EATS Act as written, would conflict with state agricultural laws and passage would have profound unintentional and adverse impacts on animal agriculture in all 50 states.
Essentially the EATS Act represents a last-ditch attempt by a segment of the hog industry to nullify Proposition #12 in order to perpetuate an inhumane housing system. The reality is that many domestic retail and restaurant chains have opted to source pork from farms using group housing of sows irrespective of state. The National Pork Producers Council is now actively lobbying in favor of the EATS Act, a proposed federal law. It is ironic that this organization was instrumental in scuttling the Egg Bill in 2017 that would have set a Federal standard for housing of hens in enriched colony modules as an acceptable and humane housing system.