National Farmers Union on Packers and Stockyards Act

The Packers and Stockyards Act has been in place for a few decades with the National Farmers Union advocating for greater enforcement. There are four companies that control about 80% of the beef market 60% of the pork market and 50% of the domestic poultry market, according to Mike Stranz, Farmers Union Vice President of Advocacy.

“To better protect against that we've been glad to see USDA putting forward rules over the last couple of years to make sure that we have the inclusive competition rule, for instance, make sure that the practice meat packers can be sued by individual farmers and ranchers if there's some misuse at play there. If there's any sorts of acts against a producer that could cause harm to competition that can be just against a single producer. And we're also watching your proposed rule that would address some of the concerns that help poultry pricing.”

He says there are three more rules that are in the pipeline to finalize the Packers and Stockyards Act.

“So one is on inclusive competition and market integrity and other one is on harm to competition. And that's the one that allows for action against the Packers and processors that are causing unfair competition in certain places. And then another one is the 30s and pricing issues in the tournament system for poultry.”

And although there is not a deadline for the last three rules the National Farmers Union is adamant about pushing forward to get them finalized according to Stranz.