Keri Jacobs, associate professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of Missouri (MU) College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR), testified during the State of Beef Supply Chain: Shocks, Recovery and Rebuilding hearing organized by the U.S. House Ag Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture on Wednesday, July 28.

In her written testimony, Jacobs, who also serves as the GICL Distinguished Fellow and the MFA Chair in Agribusiness, addressed whether producer-ownership through co-ops or other collective action can be a way forward in the beef industry.

“Coordination along the supply chain by producers, when done at scale, can smooth variability in producer incomes by capturing income from downstream markets that are less volatile,” she wrote. “The income producers and their cooperatives generate will flow to the rural communities where they operate instead of to investors. Importantly, this model places producers closer to consumer markets and allows coordination between consumer preferences and production decisions.”

Jacobs’ full testimony can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3saPA9nLy00.