Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 9/16/10

Just when you thought everything there was to be said about USDA’s controversial proposed livestock marketing rules was said at the recent hearing in Fort Collins, Colo., the debate has found a new venue: The New York Times.

In a Sept. 8 editorial, the newspaper came out in favor of proposals by USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration that would, among other things, prohibit packers from buying livestock from each other and make it easier for producers to sue packers they believe have treated them unfairly.

“New rules proposed by (Secretary of Agriculture) Vilsack aim to restore the balance between independent livestock producers and the industrial behemoths. The behemoths have screamed, a sign of how entrenched they really are,” the editorial charged.

Not so, charged back the American Meat Institute and the National Pork Producers Council in separate responses printed in the Sept. 14 issue of the newspaper.

“A chorus of meat companies and livestock producers, large and small, say the proposal threatens the partnerships that make the United States meat and poultry industry more competitive in the world market,” wrote AMI President J. Patrick Boyle in response to the editorial’s “behemoth” comment.

“If the goal is to reduce concentration in meatpacking, the Agriculture Department’s new rules for buying and selling livestock are the wrong approach, wrote NPPC President Sam Carney.

“They will increase – not decrease – concentration,” he predicted, warning the rules would drive meatpackers to own their own livestock to avoid court cases and drive some producers out of business.   

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