by Ken Root and Whitney Newman LISTEN: Agribusiness Matters 5-24-16
The Senate and House Agriculture Spending Bills for the 2017 fiscal year is getting pressure from both sides. Some groups want to block USDA funding, and others want changes to level the competitive field for all producers.
The spending bill includes reforms on the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration. Senate appropriators, excluded from the spending bill two riders that would have blocked USDA funds to implement long-pending rules to level the playing field for livestock producers. House appropriators, want to continue defunding GIPSA reforms, over the objections of some in agriculture, but not the pork industry
National Pork Producers Council spokesperson Dave Warner says, ?They’ve went well beyond the mandates congress gave. We found out recently that it looks like it’s going to be closer to that 2010 proposal, so we are going to fight this thing vigorously.?
Congress has blocked GIPSA contract and marketing reforms in livestock trade and in spending bills every year since 2012.The issue of contract protections has divided farm and livestock groups for years, with livestock groups like NPPC opposing key revisions. Warner explains, ?It would have had the exact opposite effect of what these sponsors wanted, which is to create more competition. In fact, it would have led to more vertical integration in the pork industry.?
The National Farmers Union strongly supports reform. Meanwhile, the American Farm Bureau, with members on both sides of the issue, is not taking a position.
