Roger Marshall’s misguided EATS Act would give away Kansas’ pork industry to China | Opinion
I founded the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association in 1998 to protect small ranchers and producers and give them a chance to compete fairly. We work to restore profits, self-esteem, freedom, fair trade, trust and community pride back to farms, ranches and rural communities across Kansas and the nation. Now, we find ourselves needing to broaden our defense beyond cattlemen to all the small producers who are under threat from Washington congressmen in the pockets of foreign conglomerates.
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, an Iowa Republican, and our own Kansas GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, under the false pretense of slashing regulations, are advocating for a farm bill provision called the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression or EATS Act, which would give away our pork industry to China through the upcoming farm bill. This carve-out would give Chinese companies (specifically, WH Group, the Chinese company that owns Smithfield) the ability to bypass state-level laws and operate unrestricted across the country. Unlike other issues such as country-of-origin labeling, this legislation is not supported by petitions, comments from stakeholders or data. It is a direct handout to Chinese companies and a slap in the face to small producers.
China is already aggressively buying up American farmland and agricultural companies. As of 2021, foreign groups controlled a 40-million-acre swath of U.S. agricultural land the size of this very state.
In addition to Smithfield, the state-owned China National Chemical Corporation acquired top seed company Syngenta, giving it significant control over the pork supply chain from pig feed all the way to processing facilities. And, as if allowing the Chinese to buy up our land and companies wasn’t bad enough, Congress is now rewriting the rules to let them ignore state laws and impose their own practices as they see fit.
Make no mistake: This doesn’t just erode control over our own food system. Letting countries like China, with questionable records on food safety and fairness, plow right over our laws puts our very food supply in danger.
I have a lot of respect for all farmers. Across the agriculture industry, we all understand the hardship of long days, high up-front operating costs and extreme drought. We also all know the struggles of standing up to big companies, foreign competitors and the folks in Washington, D.C., working against our interests. Today it’s the EATS Act. But what about tomorrow? It looks like it might be the Protecting Interstate Commerce for Livestock Producers Act, which is just EATS by another name.
The day after? It will be more and more giveaways to foreign countries until we have nothing left that’s ours. And where does that lead us? Right into a situation where our food and our way of life is dictated by foreign powers.
As American farmers, we have a duty to feed our nation with food that is safe and produced in the best possible manner. That means standing together in the face of threats like these. This isn’t just about the one industry. It’s about every one of us.
The Kansas Cattlemen’s Association has always been ready to stand up for our own. Today, we’re standing up for everyone — for all American producers.
Sen. Marshall’s constituents include American-owned farms and agricultural interests. Together, those domestic farmers comprise the bulk of America’s third-largest state cattle industry — right here in Kansas. Those farmers deserve federal representatives who safeguard their interests rather than prioritizing the interests of foreign powers.
I’m asking Sen. Marshall and Rep. Hinson to think twice about who really benefits from this legislation and who they are going to harm. We ask all of Congress to stand with us — the farmers who are the backbone of this great nation.
Mike Schultz is vice president of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the founder of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association. He lives in Brewster, Kansas.
