The Senate yesterday [Wednesday] unanimously approved a bill that will close a loophole in current US law, and ensure that meatpackers cannot own livestock in Iowa.
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Senator Mark Zieman (R-Postville) explained that the bill was drafted by legislators in a bid to clarify the language on the state’s ban and prevent the occurrence of another case such as that of Smithfield Foods’ purchase of hog production operations from Murphy Family Farms.
Iowa state law does prohibit meatpackers from owning livestock, but Murphy, the second largest packer in the US, sold its operations and employees in 1999 to one of its managers, Randall Stoecker. Stoecker only produced US$10,000 of the US$7.2m purchase price for the operations.
At the time, Attorney General Tom Miller complained that the nation’s largest hog meat producer was skirting the law. A judge at a Humboldt County court ruled against this in February, however.
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