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Get ready for farm bill fight, advisers say
Story Date: 2/21/2012
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Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 2/20/12
“Don’t just think this is a corn-soybean-wheat-cotton-rice-food stamp-conservation-crop insurance farm bill,” warned P. Scott Shearer, with the Bockorny Group bipartisan lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. “There are going to be a lot of issues considered and debated that are going to affect the bottom line of producers and retailers and packers.”
The 2012 farm bill was the No. 1 issue addressed in the Saturday legislative update for attendees of the National Meat Association’s convention here. The Republic primaries and the November election were under discussion as well, but all agreed it was too early to make any significant predictions in that arena.
“There’s a lot of time between now and election day,” said Mike Brown, president of the National Chicken Council. “Despite the gusts and thunder that’s happening now, [it’s the] lightening that does the work. We’ll start to see the lightning on or around September.”
The return of the GIPSA rule
“[The GIPSA rule] issue is not over by any means,” Shearer said. “A lot of issues were left out [and] there will be efforts by some to bring those issues back. [They include] undue preference, business justification, competitive injury, the whole issue of fairness. There will be efforts in the Senate to address the packer ban again.”
Cameron Bruett, in the government relations department with JBS USA, reminded the attendees that there was one condition in the 2008 farm bill that USDA was told to fulfill, and did not: “That is to define the parameters of what constitutes an undue preference. They still have the Congressional mandate that they need to address that issue, so at some point they’re going to do that.”
Bruett also expects that the advocates of the GIPSA rule’s original requirements will push those ideas through the farm bill process.
Animal welfare
Shearer expects that the industry will see a procedure on the floor of the House called the “open rule,” whereby animal welfare advocates are likely to pursue additional laws on how animals are handled.
“The first one will be the agreement between the United Egg Producers and HSUS. This will be a battle royale,” Shearer said. “This is one that even though it just deals with the laying hen industry there is grave concern … that this sets the precedent. So this will be a major issue and a major fight.”
No farm bill in the fall
All three presenters felt strongly that although farm bill hearings already are underway, that the bill will not be passed by the Sept. 30 deadline, and possibly not by the end of the calendar year.
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