Most of the attention to the fight against anti-competitive practices in the agriculture industry has involved federal policymakers, but one rural state's attorney general is making a name for himself in the fray. Roughly a third of Montana's economy remains tied to agriculture, and Attorney General Steve Bullock's "concern with anti-competitive practices in the agricultural industry has prompted him to take a front-and-center role on the issue both within the state and nationally," Jason D. B. Kauffman of the online journal New West reports for the Daily Yonder.
Bullock added one attorney to his Office of Consumer Protection to deal solely with agriculture issues, and joined in a roundtable discussion with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr., U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey of Colorado and other top-level agriculture and antitrust officials at a workshop focused on anti-competitive issues in the cattle industry in Fort Collins, Colo., in August. "My principal concerns are those impacting Montanans on the ground," Bullock told Kauffman, such as "whether our grain growers can get a fair price for their product, get that product to the market and whether there’s sufficient competition and opportunity for our beef producers."
Less competition in meatpacking and railroading are hurting Montana's cattle industry, Bullock said. Bullock and Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, a Billings-based group of ranchers and their allies, see reason for hope in the Obama administration's emphasis on agricultural competitiveness. "This administration is the first to recognize that the hollowing out of rural America that is occurring all across the nation is being accelerated by the loss of competition in agricultural markets," Bullard told Kauffman. "It is the economic cornerstone for most rural communities. And it is the vehicle by which to revitalize the rural American economy." (Read more)
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