The US Department of Justice and the US Department of Agriculture have announced a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) to formalize their partnership in an effort to protect competition in agricultural markets. The markets that they are targeting through this MOU includes feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment and other essential goods.
Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said, “Antitrust enforcement ensures free market competition for agricultural inputs, lowering costs for farmers and prices for consumers. America’s farmers deserve nothing less than the best the Antitrust Division and USDA can do to promote competitive markets that free them to feed America.”
The MOU was signed on September 26th and according to the Justice Department, the MOU “underscores their shared commitment to ensuring effective antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition, lowering inputs costs and benefiting farmers, ranchers, and consumers. It creates channels for regular consultation and communication between the agencies to ensure effective coordination, where appropriate, to benefit efforts to promote competition. And it commits both agencies to designate personnel to facilitate communications between and among attorneys, economists, and technical experts.”
I’m Dale Sandlin with Southeast AgNet.com