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Johnson discusses what we learned from recent disruptions in the meat supply chain

Rep. Johnson's office

This interview is from SDPB's daily public-affairs show, In the Moment, hosted by Lori Walsh.

U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson thinks the cattle industry needs more transparency.

Johnson co-sponsored the Cattle Contract Library Act with Representative Henry Cueller, a Democrat from Texas. The bipartisan bill was passed unanimously last week by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee.

Johnson says it’s a big step forward for the industry.

“We've got too much concentration in this market, we've got four big players that control 85% of the processing capacity. That is not ideal, a free market has many buyers and many sellers. And so what a cattle contract library would do is it would just make that data available that way everybody knows what the pricing is everywhere. And I think it’s going to make for a much fairer environment.”

The bill still needs approval from the full House and Senate consideration before being signed into law.

Lori Walsh is the host and senior producer of In the Moment.