This isn’t the first attempt to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Over the past century, farmers and rural communities have been caught in the middle as ever-larger and more powerful corporations lobbied against any changes to the system that benefits them — and no one else. For a vivid illustration of this history, check out Farm Action’s blog about the Farmer Fair Practices Rules, a set of reforms proposed in 2010 that would have fortified the Packers and Stockyards Act. If these rules had been enacted rather than defeated by corporate lobbyists, they would have shifted the balance of power into the hands of livestock and poultry producers, giving them more tools to protect themselves against massive meatpackers and legal ground to stand on in