For Immediate Release
Contact: Laura Zaks
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
press@sustainableagriculture.net
Tel. 347.563.6408
Release: NSAC Welcomes Proposed “Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets” Rule
Washington, DC, June 25, 2024 – Today, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) applauded United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack for publishing another proposed rule to modernize the century-old Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act): “Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets.” This is the fourth rule to implement reforms first announced in President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy in 2022.
“This highly anticipated rule offers important clarification to longstanding USDA interpretations of competitive injury under the P&S Act, which is intended to protect livestock and poultry growers from unfair practices,” said Billy Hackett, NSAC Policy Specialist. “The proposed rule represents one more step to give producers a fair shake in unbalanced contracts with corporate integrators.”
The proposed rule offers a comprehensive definition of “unfair practices” under Section 202(a) of the P&S Act, distinguishing between unfair practices with respect to market participants and unfair practices with respect to markets. This guidance will help USDA and courts to apply consistent guidelines when assessing alleged unfair practices, addressing inconsistent applications of the law.
“The standard put forward in the proposed rule clarifies that a farmer does not need to prove unfair practices harmed competition in the marketplace as a whole – a traditional standard for antitrust law – in order to bring a case about how unfair practices negatively impacted their own operation,” continued Hackett.
In remarks at an event at the Center for American Progress, Increasing Competition and Fairness in Food and Agricultural Markets, Secretary Vilsack summarized the intent for all P&S Act rules to-date, saying:
“We focused on modernizing our P&S Act, working with the Department of Justice to ensure that we actually put some real opportunities in the P&S Act to create a more fair and transparent market… Today, we announced a fourth rule… [which provides] an enforcement tool that will provide for greater balance in the relationship between farmer and integrator.”
USDA is seeking public comments on the proposed rule. The comment period will end 60 days after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register.
For more information, see the two-page summary and full text of the proposed rule.
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The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net