USDA Stockyard rule change decried

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

A proposed rule, published June 22 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), regarding the marketing of livestock and poultry will limit consumer choice and drive up costs, according to Republican Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas. He called for the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration to undertake a cost benefit analysis of the rule, which amends the Packers and Stockyards Act.

Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, says the rule prohibits creative arrangements between producers and packers necessary for branded meat products.

The secretary of agriculture has a different point of view. "Concerns about a lack of fairness and commonsense treatment for livestock and poultry producers have gone unaddressed far too long," says Tom Vilsack in a June press release. "This proposed rule will help ensure a level playing field for producers by providing additional protections against unfair practices and addressing new market conditions not covered by existing rules."

There were 666,000 hog farms in the United States in 1980 and there are 71,000 today, according to a USDA press release. "In the hog industry, producers received 50 per cent of the retail value of a hog in 1980, but only 24.5 per cent in 2009." BP