CORPORATE FARMING NOTES
In October, the Senate Agriculture Committee included, for the first time in history, a title focused on livestock market competition reforms when they moved their proposed farm bill proposal to the floor.
The Senate Committee’s livestock title included several reforms for which the Center for Rural Affairs has long advocated. The most talked about competition reform the Committee approved was the ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock for more than 14 days prior to slaughter. The Center has been at the forefront of the effort to obtain a ban on packer ownership of livestock for nearly a decade. The ban was included in what is called the en bloc amendment without debate in the committee.
A less talked about but equally long awaited reform included in the Senate livestock title would require USDA to write rules defining an “unreasonable preference” under the Packers and Stockyards Act. Since the publication of A Time to Act by the National Commission on Small Farms, of which the Center’s Chuck Hassebrook was a member, we have fought for Congress and USDA to define this term in order to better enforce competition laws and prevent the volume-based, sweetheart deals that packers give to large, industrial livestock operations but deny family farmers and ranchers.
The Senate’s livestock title, principally constructed by Senate chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), also creates an Office of Special Counsel within USDA for better enforcement of competition laws, improves legal protections for poultry growers, prohibits mandatory arbitration clauses in livestock and poultry production contracts, and strengthens other key provisions of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Although the inclusion of these reforms in the Senate bill is cause for celebration, it is also clear that the farm bill debate is far from over. There will be an amendment to strip the ban on packer ownership of livestock from the bill. Other amendments to weaken competition reforms are also likely. And protecting these victories in the House-Senate Conference Committee will be an even sterner challenge.
If you have not called your senators and representatives on these issues, now is definitely the time.
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with questions and comments about Corporate Farming Notes.
The Senate Committee’s livestock title included several reforms for which the Center for Rural Affairs has long advocated. The most talked about competition reform the Committee approved was the ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock for more than 14 days prior to slaughter. The Center has been at the forefront of the effort to obtain a ban on packer ownership of livestock for nearly a decade. The ban was included in what is called the en bloc amendment without debate in the committee.
A less talked about but equally long awaited reform included in the Senate livestock title would require USDA to write rules defining an “unreasonable preference” under the Packers and Stockyards Act. Since the publication of A Time to Act by the National Commission on Small Farms, of which the Center’s Chuck Hassebrook was a member, we have fought for Congress and USDA to define this term in order to better enforce competition laws and prevent the volume-based, sweetheart deals that packers give to large, industrial livestock operations but deny family farmers and ranchers.
The Senate’s livestock title, principally constructed by Senate chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), also creates an Office of Special Counsel within USDA for better enforcement of competition laws, improves legal protections for poultry growers, prohibits mandatory arbitration clauses in livestock and poultry production contracts, and strengthens other key provisions of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Although the inclusion of these reforms in the Senate bill is cause for celebration, it is also clear that the farm bill debate is far from over. There will be an amendment to strip the ban on packer ownership of livestock from the bill. Other amendments to weaken competition reforms are also likely. And protecting these victories in the House-Senate Conference Committee will be an even sterner challenge.
If you have not called your senators and representatives on these issues, now is definitely the time.
Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 with questions and comments about Corporate Farming Notes.
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