GIPSA Rule – Organization for Competitive Markets

Action Alert: Comment on the Packers and Stockyards Act Proposed Rule

OCM Staff — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:31:45 +0000

For decades, a federal law called the Packers and Stockyards Act protected America’s farmers and ranchers from abusive monopoly power in the livestock industry. The courts began to water down this law in the 1980’s, giving a handful of corporations unprecedented control over meat and poultry production. As a result, farmers and ranchers are the victims of price-fixing, collusion, and predatory contracts. Cattle, poultry and hog farmers and ranchers are going out of business while corporations like JBS, Smithfield, Read More ...

OCM Condemns Latest GIPSA Rule Iteration

OCM Staff — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 16:34:23 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, January 13, 2020, the Federal Register will publish a proposed rule by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). This rule aims to specify criteria the Secretary of Agriculture would consider when determining whether an undue or unreasonable preference or advantage has occurred in violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act. Upon its initial review of the proposed rule, Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) issued the following assessment: USDA Read More ...

Six Actions Sonny Perdue Can Take Today to Save the U.S. Cattle Market

OCM Staff — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 12:54:25 +0000

Join us on October 2nd in Omaha to say enough is enough: We need #FairCattleMarkets now! No matter whether you call yourself a farmer or a rancher; no matter if you raise cattle, hogs, chickens or row crops; whether you are a citizen-consumer who cares where your food comes from, you should be raising hell and demanding a just and fair market for all. Independent American hog farmers selling into an open market are a thing of the Read More ...

Family Farmers Go to Washington, Cry Foul Over Meat Industry Abuse

OCM Staff — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:39:59 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Adam Hymans, adam@resource-media.org, 215.796.7759 Photos, videos and backgrounders: https://tinyurl.com/standwithfarmfamiliesassets [WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 16, 2019] — Family farmers and advocates from the country’s top agricultural states took to Capitol Hill this week to expose what they say has been decades of abuse by the nation’s largest meat companies. At a press conference on Tuesday, the group launched its Stand With Farm Families campaign, sharing harrowing accounts of predatory contracts, rigged markets and retaliation Read More ...

New JBS Violations Highlight Weak Enforcement of Packers & Stockyards Act

OCM Staff — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 01:07:19 +0000

Today, Organization for Competitive Markets received information indicating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will be releasing the terms of a settlement agreement with JBS Swift over its gross mishandling of beef carcasses at its Grand Island, Nebraska facility, its largest beef processing plant in the U.S. This unconscionable practice led to probable underpayments to cattle producers in violation of the Packers & Stockyards Act. In a soon to be released press statement, AMS Read More ...

GIPSA is Dead; the Fight for Producer Protections Continues

OCM Staff — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 13:29:38 +0000

In a move designed to take a thorn out of the side of the world’s largest meatpackers, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue put the final nail in the coffin of the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) by formalizing the elimination of the standalone agency and transferring its delegation to the historically big agribusiness-friendly Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Among its duties, the now defunct GIPSA agency was responsible for enforcement of antitrust law in Read More ...

Drovers | GIPSA Rules Back On USDA Agenda In 2019

OCM Staff — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:39:56 +0000

Drovers By Greg Henderson The U.S. Department of Agriculture intends to reopen the rulemaking process known as “Farmer Fair Practices Rules.” That announcement was made by a Department of Justice attorney arguing on behalf of USDA in court last week. During oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by the Organization for Competitive Markets, attorney Weili Shaw said USDA intends to put on its spring 2019 regulatory agenda the rulemaking process for Farmer Fair Practices, formerly known as the Read More ...

Another Decade to Wait for Meaningful GIPSA Antitrust Enforcement?

OCM Staff — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:10:30 +0000

We had our day in court. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit heard oral arguments in our lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s unlawful rollback of critical protections designed to safeguard family farms and ranches from predatory and retaliatory practices by big agribusiness corporations. Appearing on behalf of the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) and independent farmers, Democracy Forward argued that USDA acted unlawfully in withdrawing the Farmer Fair Practices Rules, or GIPSA Rules, last Read More ...

Farmers Detail Harm Suffered at Hands of Big Ag Corporations in Our New Filing Against USDA

OCM Staff — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 09:34:25 +0000

[bctt tweet=”.@RealDonaldTrump and @SecretarySonny, America’s farmers deserve protection from corporate abuse. Reverse your decision to end the Farmer Fair Practices Rules. #implementGIPSAnow” via=”no”] In December 2017, we sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for illegally withdrawing critical protections intended to shield family farmers and ranchers from predatory and retaliatory practices by big agribusiness corporations. These protections were known as the Farmer Fair Practices, or GIPSA Rules. Today, with legal representation by Democracy Forward, we filed a new Read More ...

Policy Position: Restore the Packers and Stockyards Act

OCM Staff — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:47:56 +0000

Following is OCM’s policy position on restoring the Packers and Stockyards Act to its original intent. 1. Implement federal legislation that amends Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921(P&S Act) to provide that the use of a ranking system for ranking poultry growers for settlement purposes is unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive and a strict violation of section 202(a) of the P&S Act regardless of whether it harms or is likely to harm competition. 2. Implement federal legislation that is Read More ...