H.R. 9744: Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act

This bill would make major changes to how the meatpacking industry is organized and regulated in the United States. Its main goal is to reduce concentration in the industry, limit certain ownership structures, and address pricing practices that the bill says can disadvantage farmers, ranchers, and smaller competitors.

What the bill would do

• Break up concentrated meatpacking operations: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would be required to enforce divestitures, meaning it could require large meatpackers to sell off parts of their businesses if they are considered too concentrated.
• Ban multi-protein operations: Companies that operate in multiple meat sectors would face restrictions, with the bill aiming to prevent large firms from controlling several parts of the protein supply chain at once.
• Restrict foreign-controlled meatpackers: The FTC would have to identify foreign-controlled meatpackers and impose limits or other actions against them as specified by the bill.
• Address discriminatory pricing: The bill would crack down on meat pricing practices that treat different sellers differently in ways the bill considers unfair or discriminatory.
• Support cooperatives and small competitors: The bill would direct penalty funds toward supporting competition and helping new or smaller market participants enter the industry.

Enforcement and penalties

The FTC would have authority to enforce the bill’s requirements, including seeking court orders if needed. Companies that do not comply could face steep financial penalties. Money collected from those penalties would be used to support competition and help new competitors enter the market.

Rulemaking requirements

Within 90 days, the FTC would need to issue rules that:

• define the relevant meat market or markets for enforcement purposes,
• set standards for divestitures,
• and identify foreign-controlled meatpackers.

Overall effect

In practical terms, the bill would give the FTC broad authority to restructure parts of the meatpacking industry, limit certain types of large-scale ownership and control, and create financial penalties for companies that do not follow the new rules. It would also try to make room for cooperatives and smaller firms by directing enforcement funds toward competition-related support.

Relevant Companies

• TSN - Tyson Foods could be affected if the bill leads to divestitures, restrictions on multi-protein operations, or changes to pricing and market structure in beef, pork, or poultry.
• JBSS - JBS S.A. is a major meatpacker with significant U.S. operations and could be directly affected by restrictions on concentrated or foreign-controlled meatpacking.
• HRL - Hormel Foods could be affected if the bill’s limits on multi-protein operations and meat market rules apply to its meat processing businesses.
• SAFM - Sanderson Farms, now part of a larger meat processing structure, could be affected by changes to poultry market organization and ownership rules.
• CALM - Cal-Maine Foods is not a meatpacker, but if the bill’s market definitions or pricing rules reach related protein markets, it could be indirectly affected.