Two groups opposing USDA’s controversial GIPSA rule say it’s too vague and its scope is too broad. American Meat Institute general counsel Mark Dopp says the rule exceeds what is called for in the 2008 Farm Bill.
“Our concern primarily is the eliminating competitive injury element, which will lead to, in our view, excessive litigation,” said Dopp, during a conference call Monday. “Some of the unfair practices and undue preferences provisions are so vague as to be, we think, unconstitutional and certainly unworkable from a practical standpoint.”
Representatives of the American Meat Institute and the National Chicken Council spoke from Washington, D.C. Monday about their misgivings about the rule. On the other hand, some groups, including R-CALF USA favor the GIPSA rule because it addresses competition issues in livestock marketing.
Gary Kushner, legal counsel with the National Chicken Council, restates what many groups have said about the negative economic impact of the rule on lost jobs and productivity.
“Whether one would agree with these analyses, whether one would agree with the final numbers becomes quite irrelevant, because not one of them say that the rule would cost less than $100 million annually,” said Kushner. “That’s a drop in the bucket compared to what these reports found would be the actual impact.”
The two groups were filing their comments on the GIPSA rule. The comment period ended Monday.
Latest: 
One thing the meat industry and their allies forgets to talk about is the damage that they are doing to the balance sheets of family farmers. These companies are financially raping family farmers with their economic frauds and calling it efficiency.
If they are afraid of litigation and lawsuits it is because the excuses they have been proffering in federal courts are falling apart when scrutinized.
The “we can do anything if it doesn’t harm our competitors” excuse means that their strategy of calling the protections for family farmers under the Packers and Stockyards Act is at risk.
They need to pay for the damage they have caused family farmers and stop colluding in their frauds with other firms.
It is ruining our rural economies.
Maybe the next step is to not just make the remedies for breaking this law civil, but put some of these white collar crooks and their spokesmen in jail for the value they are stealing. They can steal millions of dollars of value through fraud and hide behind each other but someone stealing food from the corner grocery store may face jail time. It is time to make some of these crooks face jail time for the value they are stealing through their frauds. It would cut a lot of it out.
Tom