Family Farmers Call Republican House Appropriations Bill an “Unacceptable Attack.”
102 groups say a policy rider in the current Republican budget proposal supports corporate meatpackers by preventing USDA from ensuring fair and competitive livestock markets.
A broad coalition of family farm, rancher, consumer, labor, farmworker, and faith organizations are calling on the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations to remove a policy rider from its FY24 Agriculture Appropriations proposal during today’s markup. House Agriculture Appropriations Chair Andy Harris (R-MD) inserted the rider into the Republican budget draft released in May.
The rider would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from writing, preparing, publishing, or implementing proposed rules to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act. The P&S Act “prohibits meatpackers and poultry companies from using their market power to subject farmers and ranchers to anticompetitive, deceptive, fraudulent, and abusive business practices, and gives the Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice powerful tools to police this conduct when it occurs,” according to the groups.
“Our members have lived through dramatic shifts in the hog market that replaced independent producers raising hogs on diversified farms with factory farms controlled by the largest meat packers,” said Patty Lovera, Policy Advisor for the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment. “Now we see the same trends happening in the cattle industry. Congress should be making USDA act faster to finally enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act, not interfering on behalf of the meatpackers.”
“This is a simple test for any member of this Congressional committee,” said Gilles Stockton, a rancher from Grass Range, Montana, and spokesperson for Northern Plains Resource Council. “Either you stand with America’s family farmers and ranchers or you throw us under the bus to prop up a corrupt system that is rigged to generate more power for a cabal of multinational corporations.”
Stockton pointed to the historical significance of the P&S Act, passed a century ago. “In 1921, Congress had the courage to address a monopoly that was exploiting consumers and producers alike. Today’s cartel is more concentrated and more corrupt. We need to reform this broken system, and we need leaders with the courage and integrity to stand up for America’s ranchers and consumers,” Stockton said.
The sign-on letter was organized by the Campaign for Contract Agriculture Reform, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Farm Action, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, National Farmers Union, and the Western Organization of Resource Councils. 102 organizations have signed the letter so far. The full letter is pasted below.
Today’s Agriculture Appropriations Committee markup session is the next step in Congressional negotiations for the FY2024 federal budget. The current budget expires on September 30, 2023. The budget must be passed and agreed to by the full U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and signed by President Biden. Hundreds of billions of dollars supporting rural people and rural communities are at stake in the Appropriations process.
FULL TEXT OF SIGN-ON LETTER HERE:
Submitted June 13, 2023
Dear Chair Granger and Ranking Member DeLauro,
The 102 undersigned organizations are writing to urge your opposition to any appropriations policy riders to limit the rulemaking authority of the Secretary of Agriculture under the Packers and Stockyards Act. The Packers and Stockyards Act is one of the most important federal statutes for our nation’s livestock and poultry farmers and ranchers. It prohibits meatpackers and poultry companies from using their market power to subject farmers and ranchers to anticompetitive, deceptive, fraudulent and abusive business practices, and gives the Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice powerful tools to police this conduct when it occurs.
Although the Act was originally enacted in 1921, its importance is even greater now because of the highly concentrated and vertically integrated nature of the livestock and poultry industries. Over the last fifty years, these industries have seen rampant consolidation due to widespread underenforcement of our antitrust laws. Today, the four largest processors in each sector control 70% of the market for hogs, 62% for sheep and lambs, and 85% for cattle. This has given dominant meatpacking corporations considerable market power and enabled their use of unfair contracting provisions and retaliatory practices that are abusive and harmful to family farmers.
Whether it be a contract poultry grower whose contract is abruptly terminated when they resist taking on overwhelming debt for corporate-mandated facility upgrades, a cattle producer who loses money year after year because the only packer in their market can manipulate the price of beef, or a livestock producer who experiences retaliation after they speak up against a corporation’s unfair practices, farmers and ranchers are being driven out of business and off their land across this nation. For decades now, these farmers and ranchers have been demanding that their government take action to ensure that the markets they compete in are fair for everyone.
In response to these widespread concerns, the Biden administration’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy directed USDA to complete a Packers and Stockyards rulemaking process that truly protects farmers and ranchers. USDA has already completed comment periods on two proposed rules: “Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting Tournaments” and ‘‘Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Under the Packers and Stockyards Act,’’ and is anticipated to issue additional important proposed rules in the upcoming year. The proposed rules already issued would provide critical protections to our nation’s livestock producers, including:
Requiring poultry companies to be transparent with prospective and current contract poultry growers about contract terms and the real incomes they are likely to earn,
Prohibiting deceptive contracting practices used by dominant corporations to take advantage of producers,
Increasing protections against discrimination and retaliation by major meatpacking corporations reported by numerous livestock and poultry producers they sell to or contract with.
This is not the first time the packers and processors have used appropriations riders to prevent USDA from addressing their monopoly power. In response to past attempts to secure these desperately needed reforms, these corporations have successfully lobbied Congress to use this back-door approach to block the completion of clear Packers and Stockyards rules. Now these same corporations and their allies are once again using the cover of a 130-page appropriations bill to derail the rulemaking process. Sections 737 and 738 of the House FY24 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations bill prohibit USDA from finalizing its proposed rules, and seek to hobble the USDA’s ability to appropriately staff the Packers and Stockyards Division so that it can effectively enforce the Act. To make matters worse, these riders also prohibit the Department from engaging in any further rulemaking before the committee has had the opportunity to consider what the Department may propose.
This rider is an unacceptable attack on the ability of the Department of Agriculture to do its job: protecting American farmers and ranchers and ensuring fair and competitive markets. Instead of carrying water for multinational meatpacking corporations, we urge the House Appropriations Committee to stand with American farmers and ranchers and reject any attempts to limit the Secretary’s authority under the Packers and Stockyards Act, or the USDA’s capacity to fully and effectively enforce it.
A FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES CAN BE FOUND HERE.
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