Meatpackers Not Off Hook Yet Initial Review Shows No Evidence Of Price-Fixing

There is no clear proof that the top four meatpackers control hog and cattle prices, according to an Agriculture Department report released Wednesday.

Still, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman pledged he would block any effort by a few slaughterhouses to underpay farmers and ranchers. He also appointed a 21-member committee of farmers, economists, meat packers and others to take a deeper look at concentration in livestock.

Livestock is the largest segment of the farm economy, accounting for more than $50 billion in farm-level sales a year.

A huge slump in cattle prices and the rapid growth of huge, corporate hog farms has angered ranchers, small-feed lot operators and farmers throughout the West, Midwest and Plains states. As a result, the issue has become fodder for the 1996 congressional and presidential elections.

Limited in the time period it covered, the congressionally required study left unanswered the key question: whether the big packing companies have enough clout to move prices.

The new committee will look at the report and other data from the department. A key goal will be to see whether changes in how the industry does business have distorted the pricing and market information that farmers and ranchers rely on.