Legislators want "go slow" approach on packer ownership

Republican legislators plan a “go-slow” approach to fixing Iowa’s ban onpacker ownership of livestock, a ban that was thrown out by a federal judge.But that go-slow approach isn’t sitting well with the state’s farmcommunity. Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Lang says legislators need toget started quickly on a fix. Lang says the ruling is a real threat to independent livestock producers.While Republicans yesterday said there was no need for quick action,democrats called for passing a bill next week that’d respond to the judge’sconcerns.Lang is meeting this morning in Newton with leaders of the Iowa Cattlemen’sAssociation, to talk about the meatpacking plant in Tama, but he says thesubject of packer ownership will come up. He plans to check in with thePork Producers, too.Lang says the “preservation of the family farm as primary producers ofcattle, hogs and other livestock…is vital to the economic stability ofIowa’s rural communities.” Today, four meatpackers control 82 percent ofthe livestock that’s slaughtered in the U-S.