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R-Calf CEO calls Biden pro-competition order ‘monumental’

The head of R-CALF USA, Bill Bullard, calls President Biden’s pro-competition order ‘monumental’ for the cattle and livestock industries…

“The executive order will direct the USDA to begin a rule making process in order to fully deploy and implement the 100-year-old Packers and Stockyards Act that has been completely ineffective in preventing the purging of competition within our livestock markets.”

The order also prevents individual livestock producers from having to prove injury to competition in order to seek protections. Bullard says the courts have wrongly interpreted the law to say protections cannot be sought unless there’s widespread competitive injury caused by packer conduct.

“That was NEVER the way the Act was intended and the Biden administration agrees with that.”

Bullard tells Brownfield the protections in Biden’s order have been needed for 20 years and he believes the pandemic’s effects on the supply chain have woken government officials up.