The beef industry will face scrutiny this week from senators who are under pressure to curb the pricing power of big meatpackers, while the full Senate is nearing a vote on a bill to accelerate the development of ag carbon markets.
 
On Wednesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee is bringing in representatives of producers as well as experts on the meatpacking industry and cattle markets for a hearing on industry pricing practices.
 
According to sources, the witnesses at the hearing will be Rabobank animal protein analyst Dustin Aherin; Kansas State University economist Glynn Tonsor; Mary Hendrickson of the University of Missouri, a rural sociologist who studies food systems; Kansas cattle producer Mark Gardiner; and South Dakota auctioneer Justin Tupper.
 
 
Critics of the packing industry began pushing for such a hearing in the last Congress, but then-Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., refused to call one.
 
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