I am all for sticking it to big food. Just like I posted above they have grown all powerful from tax subsidies. Big meat has been involved in price collusion for decades and have been caught multiple times. Massie's bill won't do ish to help, though.
Thing is, farmers have been selling direct to the public for years, but people are not willing to pay the prices the farmer wants for their product. I know a guy who just closed up shop. There is plenty of feed corn to be had, but the cost of raising a beef is insane. People just won't pay 3k for full beef.
Massie's bill wants to allow custom meat processors, aka; slaughterhouses, to sell direct to restaurants and the public. He also wants to do away with inspections on said facilities. Many processors already sell direct, so I'm not sure what that's about, but no inspections is bad. I can't tell you how bad of an idea that is. If you have never been inside of a meat processor then you have no idea how bad the bad ones really are.
The problem right now with beef are multifold. Subsidies, again, have driven many beef farmers into grain farming because the profits are great, more stable, and less regulated. EPA is a ***** for farmers. Screw worms in Mexico are messing up the supply in a bad way. Worse still they are moving north and Texas is prime beef country. It's game over if they hit there. Water shortages in the west are causing people to give up farming all together. Herds are at a multi-decade low and are not recovering.
All of that has led to cattle selling sky high, the highest I have ever seen, and it doesn't seem like it's going to get better any time soon. If I were a conspiracy theorist I might just say it was done on purpose.