The Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA) of 1921 should - in theory - regulate competition in the livestock industry. However, in 2006, the Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office both found out that - oops! - the USDA hadn't properly enforced the PSA for nearly a decade. To those who know much about the difficulties family farmers face in the livestock industry, this probably wasn't too much of a surprise. The meatpacking industry is highly consolidated (particularly the beef industry, in which 4 companies slaughter about 90% of all cattle in the U.S.) and they use a practice called captive supply (owning or controlling livestock via contracts) to keep the prices they pay to family farmers very low.
Read on, for the story of one rancher who tried to do something about this issue and ended up being retaliated against by Tyson...
