Dive Summary:

• The American Meat Institute has sent a letter to the Obama administration warning that if the government let the looming sequestration to finalize, the meat industry would be forced to shut its doors.
• The sequestration, if in fact it does happen, would cut much of the funding to the USDA meat inspectors, which would just about make all meat uninspected, thus, unsellable.
• The AMI urges the administration to reach a deal so that one of America's biggest agricultural markets is not forced to close for good. 

From the article:

This, he claimed, would “cause production losses of $10bn, cost company employees more than $400m in lost wages, and impose untold losses on the more than one million livestock and poultry producers in this country.

“I respectfully request that, in the event of sequestration, USDA meat and poultry inspectors not be furloughed so that the Secretary of Agriculture can fulfill his statutory obligations.”