The final few days for the current administration includes USDA finalizing a new rule for poultry companies. Rusty Halvorson has the story.
USDA and the Biden administration are closing the final days of the administration by finalizing a new rule restricting how poultry companies score and penalize contract growers under the tournament system.
It’s the third regulation offered by the Biden Administration under the Packers and Stockyards Act to provide more fairness to livestock producers.
In a press call with reporters, Vilsack looked back on the President’s directive to spur more competition and fairness in the meat marketplace.
“One of the tools available to us are the rules and regulations under the Packers and Stockyards Act, strengthening a number of those rules. We began that process by developing stronger directives concerning transparency in the relationships between producers and integrators. We wanted to make sure that producers received enough information, key information, so they had a better sense of who they were doing business with when they entered into contracts in which they would be required to make significant investments. We followed that up with a rule that provides greater protection against acts of discrimination or retaliation [that] may occur when producers exercise their rights to communicate with government agencies and things of that nature. This rule does provide additional protections in the event they are faced with an active discrimination or retaliation, aimed at them or their operation.”
More than 96% of broiler chicken production around the nation is conducted by growers who contract to deliver chickens to processors.
Under the tournament system, each producer in an area is weighted against each other’s performance in how well they raise their chicks, death losses and weights.
Vilsack noted in his comments that some producers lost their life savings or went bankrupt because they were locked into an unfair contract when they agreed to raise animals.