CONDE, S.D. (WNAX) – The Federal Trade Commission says the USDA needs to go back and rewrite its proposed farmer fair practice rules that would amend federal protections for independent producers from dealings with large meatpackers. South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke agrees and says consumers and producers are getting gouged while packers are making huge profits.

He says cattle producers aren’t the only one being hurt by the meatpackers, so are poultry producers as four meat packers control 51 percent of the broiler market and 57 percent of the turkey market.

Sombke says he’s asking South Dakota’s Congressional delegation to look into price fixing by the large meat processors.

Sombke says there needs to be stricter enforcement of the nation’s antitrust laws.

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