“Over the past few decades, there has been a quality revolution in our industry,” Colvin said. “Years ago, meat was a generic commodity -- supposedly, one cut was just as good as another. Consumers couldn't connect meat to its source or predict whether it would be juicy, tender and lean or gristly, tough and tasteless. Then came ‘value-based’ marketing. Working with cattle producers, meatpackers developed alternative marketing arrangements that enable cattlemen to work with meat companies as partners in providing consumers with the choice, quality and specialty items they want.”
But Colvin says that the rules proposed by USDA threaten the partnerships that have developed between livestock producers and meat companies.