News

USDA unveils potential GIPSA replacement

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has proposed a replacement to the Grain, Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Act (GIPSA) the Department withdrew in 2017.

AMS says the plan clarifies whether a packer, swine contractor, or live poultry dealer has made or given any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any person or locality in a way that would violate the GIPSA rule.

Under the proposal, the criteria for unfair treatment of producers includes whether the preference can or cannot be justified on the basis of cost savings, or by meeting the terms or prices offered by a competitor.

The Organization for Competitive Markets is critical of the proposal, saying USDA fails to own up to its longstanding position that the Packers and Stockyards Act is both an antitrust law as well as a producer protection law.  Specifically, OCM says it does not set out which actions are unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive by meat packers and processors.

The proposed rule is open for public comment until March 13^th.