In comments submitted to the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), R-CALF USA, America’s largest organization exclusively representing independent cattle producers, emphasized strong support of the agency’s “Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets” proposed rule.
Published on June 28, 2024, the proposal would revise the regulations under the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (P&S Act). According to AMS, the proposed rule would “define unfair practices as conduct that harms market participants and conduct that harms the market.”
“This rule is absolutely essential if we’re going to stop the ongoing contraction of the U.S. cattle industry,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “When finalized, this rule will make it possible for farmers and ranchers to seek protections against trade practices within the highly concentrated meat packing industry that adversely affects them and their business operations.”
In its comments, R-CALF USA agreed with AMS’s interpretation that Congress fully intended the P&S Act to reach beyond previously enacted antitrust laws. The group indicated it strongly supported AMS’s approach to defining the unfair practices under it, but the group added that additional clarity is needed to ensure consistency and predictability in the enforcement of the Act.
R-CALF USA offered suggestions for stronger enforcement regarding unfair practices that may impact both market participants and markets, the standards used for determining when both market participants and markets are subjected to unfair practices, and for determining the potential magnitude of injury that would trigger enforcement action.
Specific suggestions included that AMS eliminate completely the competitive injury standard that could render otherwise actionable unfair practices against cattle producers unenforceable, that AMS establish a dollar amount to initiate enforcement action under the Act, and that AMS eliminate the independent legitimate business reason for justifying otherwise unlawful practices.
The comments concluded by stating that with the suggested amendments the proposed rule “will clearly and definitively establish that the P&S Act provides meaningful protections to individual market participants from abusive market conduct regardless of whether the harm they endure also results in harm to competition, as well protections for the wider marketplace upon which they rely for their livelihoods.”