Did something historic happen in Ankeny, Iowa, on Friday, March 12, or was it much ado about nothing? Over 700 farmers, ranchers and concerned rural citizens from at least a dozen states gathered at the Des Moines Area Community College’s FFA Enrichment Center for the first in a series of agricultural antitrust and competition policy workshops hosted by the Justice Department and USDA.

It is difficult to believe that USDA and Justice cannot recognize that the seed industry, not to mention meatpacking and myriad other agricultural markets, is deeply and fundamentally dysfunctional and anticompetitive. Certainly the family farmers and ranchers in Ankeny that day knew it.

Attorney General Eric Holder called it a “milestone” event. “I do not use ‘milestone’ lightly. Not once has the Departments of Justice and Agriculture come together to discuss regulatory issues in this industry,” Holder said.

Whether the workshop in Ankeny was a dog-and-pony show or history in the making won’t be determined by what was said there, however, but by whether Secretary Vilsack and Attorney General Holder choose to stand with family farmers, ranchers and rural communities, or just maintain the status quo.

Missouri farmer and state Senator Wes Shoemyer summed up the day by saying, “We’ve waited a long time for justice in the heartland.” I couldn’t say it better myself.

Emanuel Miller, an Amish farmer from Loyal, Wisconsin, won his court battle against the state’s livestock premises registration program in March. According to Miller, livestock premises registration is the first step toward the individual tagging of all livestock, which would amount to the “mark of the beast,” as referenced in the Book of Revelations, and that compliance would violate his religious beliefs and lead to him being shunned by the Amish community.

Wisconsin’s first-in-the-nation mandatory registration law requires all owners of livestock premises within the state to register the location, number and type of livestock kept there.

Clark County Circuit Court Judge Jon Counsell found in favor of Miller, ruling that the state failed to show that mandatory registration furthers animal health and food safety any more effectively than alternatives that would not curtail Miller’s religious freedom. He remained mute on the “mark of the beast” question.

For a more detailed report on the DOJ workshop: contact John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org, and visit www.cfra.org/competition for ways to get more involved with these issues.