Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the infant formula shortage highlights lack of competition in the industry, similar to the meat processing sector.
He says that needs to be addressed.
“One thing that I think we’re going to learn from this circumstance is it’s great to be efficient,” he says. “We have many industries, the infant formula industry is one of them and the meat processing industry is another, where there has been a focus on efficiency on the theory that somehow that’s going to result in lower costs for folks, but the reality is that efficiency comes at a cost, and that cost is when the supply chain is disrupted it can have serious consequences.”
He tells Brownfield “there are ways to be cost-conscious through competition in addition to efficiency and I think it’s incumbent upon us to take a look at ways in which we can create greater resiliency in these major industries in the future.
