The order directs USDA to consider issuing new rules defining when meat can bear “Product of USA” labels so that consumers have accurate, transparent labels that enable them to choose products made here.
The order also directs USDA to consider issuing new rules under the Packers and Stockyards Act making it easier for farmers to bring and win claims, stopping chicken processors from exploiting and underpaying chicken farmers, and adopting anti-retaliation protections for farmers who speak out about bad practices.
Currently, if a farmer wants to sue a company for anticompetitive behavior under the act, the farmer would need to show the company’s actions hurt not only him, but the entire industry. That creates a very high bar that the Obama rules would have lowered. But the Trump administration withdrew the rules, leaving groups like the Organization for Competitive Markets disappointed.
Fred Stokes, the founder of OCM, and a cattle rancher in Porterville, Mississippi said today in an interview with Bloomberg, that he is cautiously optimistic that the new order will “settle that once and for all and meatpackers would again be subject to action regarding their ill deeds,” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-09/biden-is-taking-on-big-ag-with-a-bid-to-help-family-farmers?sref=taxRtTxi
Citing recent supply chain interruptions, including a fire at a Tyson plant in Kansas in 2019, the pandemic, and the recent cyberattack against top meat producer JBS SA, he said that packers use these opportunities to charge consumers more for meat, and pay ranchers less for cattle, inflating their profits. Without the changed rule, Stokes said, individual ranchers have little legal recourse.
Be the first to comment