Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 9/20/16


Five industry groups Monday sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging him to allow public comment if USDA proceeds with certain portions of a livestock and poultry marketing rule originally proposed in 2010 that are strongly opposed by the industry.

“The opposition expressed six years ago remains as staunch as ever, and we urge the agency to abandon the proposed rule because of the significant adverse effect adopting it would have on the meat and poultry industry, particularly the producer community, who will be disproportionately affected,” wrote the North American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Chicken Council, the National Pork Producers Council and the National Turkey Federation.

The groups emphasized that if USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) proceeds with the rule as it recently announced it might, additional opportunity to comment is essential. The groups cited requirements within the White House’s Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government and Executive Orders 12866 and 13563, which call upon government to be transparent and to permit comment periods of at least 60 days on proposed rules.

“Although GIPSA provided an opportunity for affected stakeholders to comment on the proposed rule, more than six years have passed since its publication,” according to the letter. “If the agency relies only on the administrative record as it existed when the comment period closed in November 2010, it is affirmatively choosing to ignore the many changes in and evolution of the livestock, meat, and poultry industry during the past six years and would publish a rule on a record that can only be described as stale and not developed in a 'timely fashion.’”

For example, the groups cited three greenfield projects in various stages of development, including a Clemens Food Group plant in Coldwater, Mich., that is scheduled to open in autumn 2017; a Seaboard Foods/Triumph Foods joint venture in Sioux City, Iowa, expected to open in July 2017; and a Prestage Foods plant in Wright County, Iowa, expected to begin operations in mid-2018.

Some of the facilities are owned by livestock producers rather than conventional meat processors, the groups argue.
They also cited “rapid” changes in both the retail and foodservice sectors since 2010 regarding animal handling. “These new demands have created new marketing and revenue opportunities for poultry and livestock producers and the meatpackers with which they partner,” according to the letter.

The groups argued that the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) has not participated in the work currently being done. When OCE later was given the opportunity to do so, it concluded the economic impact was greater than originally estimated and for that reason, OCE’s analysis is critical if GIPSA proceeds with portions of the proposal, according to the groups.

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