What the GIPSA proposal will do for you…or to you

[Recursion]

Just an FYI that the Obama administration is moving to keep the promises it made on agriculture policy:

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/What-the-GIPSA-proposal-will-do-for-youor-to-you.html?ref=674

Change is never easy. If something has been in place for 7+ decades and everybody knows the rules and how to play by them, new rules are bound to create a ruckus. The mere suggestion of new GIPSA rules was enough to create a wave of palpitations. If it comes to pass, it will create a tsunami of legal suits.

The man who created this potentially disastrous legal hurricane is J. Dudley Butler. While working as an attorney in the Butler Farm and Ranch Law Group in Canton, Mississippi, he busied himself with multiple lawsuits – usually unsuccessful - against poultry companies for alleged illegal business practices. When he was appointed Administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration (GIPSA), there were comments along the lines of “fox guarding the hen house” because he’s now in charge of managing and altering the regulations that often bested him in the private sector.

...

The industry didn’t do much talking about the proposed rules. Yelling, screaming and pointed accusations were the rules of this debate. Standing on one side of the issue are groups like NCBA and AMI. Their opinion is the proposal is an abomination and a sure-fire way for the industry to lose millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

On the other side stood R-CALF, a pugilistic group of cattlemen always spoiling for a fight. “No,” they said through Bill Bullard, their CEO, “the new rules just level the playing field. They give cattlemen a chance to get a fair shake from ruthless packers.”

The proposed new rules are the most significant change in ag policy in decades. While not a full packer ban (meat packers could still in some circumstances own cattle on their source ranches -- essentially beef sharecropping) it would greatly limit the practice and give small ranchers a much better chance in court.

Industry will fight this, and will probably get some concessions before these rules are implemented, but all in all this is a Good Thing.