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House farm bill advances; includes GIPSA amendment
Story Date: 7/13/2012
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Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 7/12/12
Now that the House Agriculture Committee has approved the farm bill, formally known as the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012, both chambers still must iron out their differences in a conference committee.
But the conference committee needs to move quickly: The current farm bill expires Sept. 30, and there are only 13 legislative days left before the August recess.
“Our nation's farmers and ranchers need the certainty of a new five-year farm bill and they need it before the current farm bill ends," House Ranking Member Collin Peterson said in a news release.
Meanwhile, the non-profit Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA criticized the Conaway-Costa Amendment, which included language that continues to prevent the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) from issuing a final rule defining injury to competition and from finalizing a rule on the contractual growout structure of the chicken industry.
According to Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, the bill also includes language making the rule consistent with the legal intention of the 2008 Farm Bill by requiring GIPSA to rescind provisions about: placing pullets, breeders, and laying hens under the agency’s authority; defining a capital investment over the life of a growing arrangement; and, requiring that a dealer provide notice 90 days before suspending delivery of a flock for more than 15 days.
All the protections that are in the Packers and Stockyards Act and the provisions that were statutorily mandated in the 2008 Farm Bill are still in place and not impacted by the technical corrections.
“America’s poultry farmers deserve basic standards of fairness and access to information in their business dealings with poultry companies,” said Becky Ceartas, contract agriculture reform program director at the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA. “Each of the hundreds of farmers who spoke up for these regulations during the rule-making process did so at risk of retaliation and the loss of their family’s livelihoods.”
Another amendment would bar states from imposing animal-welfare standards or other production rules that would apply to eggs, meat and other agricultural products that are part of interstate commerce.
“The government of a state or locality therein shall not impose a standard or condition on the production or manufacture of any agricultural product sold or offered for sale in interstate commerce” if the production occurs in another state and follows federal law, according to that amendment.
The House committee adopted yet another amendment that would require the USDA to turn in a report on the progress of Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) compliance within 90 days of the date of enactment.
The House Agriculture Committee passed H.R. 6083, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012, by a vote of 35-11 Thursday. The next step is a full vote on the floor of the House.
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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