Farm Action Applauds USDA Effort to Ensure Protections for America’s Farmers and Ranchers

Today, Farm Action submitted a public comment commending the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets proposal, which importantly clarifies that farmers are protected under the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act) from unfair practices that harm the individual farmer or the entire market.

Farm Action has long advocated for USDA to propose a rule clarifying its long-standing position that farmers and ranchers only need to demonstrate harm to an individual (i.e., unfair payment)  — not the entire industry — to bring a P&S Act claim. This proposed rule is a meaningful step toward ensuring this right for producers.

The comment notes, “Farm Action believes that regulated markets need more clear and robust rules about how to identify unfair and deceptive practices under the P&S Act. We agree with [USDA] that current law has created harmful inconsistency about the evidence and legal standards needed to establish violations.”

While the proposed rule addresses many of the ambiguities of the current P&S Act, some aspects must be strengthened or more clearly defined to ensure clear enforceability. 

Among those, Farm Action notes that USDA should clarify that this rule would not apply to product differentiation. Farm Action supports producers investing in premium genetics or certifications for their product and, therefore, receiving a higher price — which differs from the discriminate prices large corporations pay producers based on favoritism or retaliation. 

To better support farmers and ranchers, Farm Action also recommends and requests that USDA does the following: 

• Clarify the scope and procedures for the determination of “countervailing benefits” in unfair practice actions — thus ensuring that processors and integrators are not able to create loopholes through this clause that help them justify their unfair treatment of farmers
• Clarify a narrow scope and fair procedures for the consideration of legitimate business justifications in unfair methods of competition actions
• Ensuring consistency in the treatment of federal and private enforcement of the statute.
• Clarifying the specific practices that are “unfair” under the P&S Act

Farm Action rallied over 770 supporters to submit public comments calling on the USDA to strengthen and adopt this rulemaking to better support farmers and ranchers. 

Farm Action is encouraged by USDA’s continued efforts to strengthen the 100-year-old P&S Act and restore it to the statute’s original goal of protecting livestock and poultry producers from unfair monopolistic market practices. This proposed rule marks the fourth such rulemaking. Farm Action looks forward to reviewing the fifth rulemaking pertaining to transparency in the cattle industry when it is released.

Media Contact: Emma Nicolas, enicolas@farmaction.us, 202-450-0094