As meat industry plays for time and the election, allies in Congress blast proposed market rules

As the meat industry tries to delay new U.S. Department of Agriculture rules designed to curb anti-competitive practices that hurt producers, hoping a more Republican Congress will be elected Nov. 2, its allies in Congress are raising a bipartisan cacophony of objections. "The fight over these regulations is an earthquake in agriculture and in much of rural America. The fight is over who will have the power to shape the relationship between farmers and ranchers and meat producers — and this will shape the economic and social future of many communities in rural America," Bill Bishop writes for the Daily Yonder.

"The scene at the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry hearing Tuesday was brutal, as one member of Congress after another labeled the regulations as 'silly,' a 'serious mistake,' 'offensive' and a 'clear violation' of what legislators intended" when they directed USDA to write such rules, Bishop reports. "After this week’s lambasting, it seems likely that USDA will grant additional time for comments" on the rules, as the meatpacking lobbies have requested. Bishop's story has good background and links on the issue; read it here.

The National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen's Beef Association have filed formal requests for the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration to triple the usual 60-day comment period. The requests from "Big Pork and Big Beef" for delays show how little the groups carry about producers, agricultural journalist Alan Guebert opines in his syndicated Food and Farm File column.

"If new rules are not forthcoming to limit the massive market-moving capabilities of massive meatpackers, open and transparent markets will vanish, as they have in poultry markets, and production, like in poultry, will be by invitation -- contract -- only," Guebert predicts. "That's what NPPC and NCBA advocate when each parrots the packers' call to delay the GIPSA rule comment period in hopes of killing it." Guebert argues that the extended comment period, called for by the industry groups, only serves to give them more time to undermine GIPSA's new administrator and elect "a more packer-friendly Congress" on Nov. 2.

NPPC claimed the new rules "could limit pork producers' options in selling pigs to processors," and NCBA said it believed "this rule ... could have a huge impact on the marketing of cattle in the United States." Guebert agrees, and argues it would be for the good. He quotes DTN livestock analyst John Harrington's commentary about meatpacking giant JBS's recent purchase of the 130,000-head McElhaney Feedyard in Arizona, giving the company ownership of 47 percent of all cattle it slaughters: "While there is significant disagreement over exactly how much such captive sourcing hurts negotiated cash (prices), most would agree that the category of packer-owned cattle tends to be the most toxic in poisoning cash market demand." (Read more, via Farm World)