Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, spoke with the Vice President of Governmental Affairs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane about USDA’s proposed rule to clarify unfair practices in the livestock, meat, and poultry industries back in June. This conversation brings us up to date with the USDA’s Fairness Rule’s extension for comments which will now close on September 11.
Lane, along with his team at NCBA, reviewed the rule page by page. They determined that the bulk of it models the old Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), but it is now called the Fair and Competitive Livestock Poultry Markets Proposal.
“When you read through the rule and the preamble, it is an incredibly vague rulemaking that essentially says anything that differentiates product for cattle producers based on price, on quality, on innovation is unfair and uncompetitive and could be open for challenge under this new rule,” Lane said. “Without question, this is an attack on producer profitability. This is intended to do away with the idea of producers being able to seek additional premiums on their cows and seek profit on their cattle based on changes they make to their production practices, such as the investments they make in genetics. This seeks to do away with all of that to make a return to commodity cattle and uniform prices throughout the industry.”
Lane said the new rule aims to eliminate premiums and lock in uniform prices throughout the industry.
Explaining this new idea of “fairness” emphasized by the Biden Administration, Lane said the new rule looks to see that everyone gets the same price for their cattle, regardless of effort to deliver the best product to the consumer.
“You have got a lot of folks out there in the populist end of the world, both Republicans and Democrats, who have really latched onto this idea of fairness,” Lane said. “They just hate the idea that somebody putting forth effort or investment in their operation might mean they, next door, make less on their cattle.”
Countless times Lane said the USDA has tried to pass rules similar to this one throughout the years, and they have lost in federal court each time.
“It is going to be a long road ahead of us to fight this rule on behalf of our members across the country who have made investments in their cattle and want to get premiums because of it,” Lane said. “Undercutting that in the quest for some kind of undeserved fairness in the marketplace is misguided. We are going to fight this every chance we can.”
It is still a preliminary rule, and the comment period, originally set to close in late August, is now open until September 11. Once the comment period has closed, it will take months to incorporate those comments and responses into a final rule.
“The time is ticking away on this and any of the regulations pushed forward at this point in this administration depending on what happens in November,” Lane said.
According to Lane, getting this rule passed has been a passion project for Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, even since his first tenure. “He has made his mark as being opposed to producers being able to differentiate their products in the marketplace. He doesn’t like those aspects of the free market, and he’s been dogged in pursuing this during his time as the Secretary of Agriculture,” Lane concluded.
To read NCBA’s original statement on the latest USDA Packers and Stockyards rule, click here.
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