INDUSTRY UPDATE CONTINUED
USDA Withdraws Meat Processing Rule USDA has announced it is withdrawing an interim final rule — widely opposed by the processing industry — addressing sales of live animals between farmers and meat and poultry processors. Known as the Farmer Fair Practice Rules, the set of regulations was initially promoted as protecting farmers and ranchers from anticompetitive business practices and would have updated the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921. The rules addressed such issues as how competitive injury is determined and how preferences are determined in the poultry grower ranking system. The rule was published in the Federal Register in December and went into effect on October 19, after an extension of the comment period. The interim final rule would have broadened the scope of the Packers and Stockyards Act related to using “unfair, unjustly discriminatory or deceptive practices” and to giving “undue or unreasonable preferences or advantages,” the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) said in a statement. Specifically, the rule would have made such actions violations of federal law even if they didn’t harm competition or cause competitive injury. “We’re very pleased that the secretary will withdraw these bad regulations, which would have had a devastating impact on America’s pork producers,” said NPPC President Ken Maschhoff, a pork producer from Carlyle, IL. “The regulations would have restricted the buying and selling of livestock, led to consolidation of the livestock industry — putting farmers out of business — and increased consumer prices for meat.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 82
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