Nebraska Farmers Union

1305 Plum Street • Lincoln, NE 68502 www.nebraskafarmersunion.org Contact John Hansen Office: 402-476-8815 Fax: 402-476-8859 Cell: 402-580-8815 john@nebraskafarmersunion.org

September 2, 2010

Nebraska Farmers Union Calls On Livestock Producers

To Seize The Opportunity to Reform Ag Markets

Lincoln, NE. Nebraska Farmers Union calls on livestock and dairy producers to seize the opportunity for meaningful market reforms. The series of national joint workshops co-sponsored by the Justice Department and USDA, including the one on livestock markets in Fort Collins, Colorado are the first time the two federal agencies have worked so closely together to evaluate non-competitive marketing practices and market concentration relative to their law enforcement responsibilities.

The proposed GIPSA (Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration) regulations are responding to Sections 11005 and 11006 of Title XI of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill).

“For decades, our organization and livestock producers have been calling on both the Justice Department and the Packers and Stockyards division of USDA to enforce existing antitrust laws and provisions. Now, finally, at long last, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Eric Holder are listening,” said NEFU President John Hansen who attended the workshops. “This opportunity may never come again.”

Hansen said, “The USDA data accurately documents the failure of the livestock and dairy marketing system to fairly allocate price and value. Since 1980, 32% of the nation’s sheep producers, 41% of the beef producers, 81% of the dairy producers, and 91% of the swine producers have been forced out of business. Those producers were forced out of business because of the failure of agricultural markets to discover price and consequently allocate value. Massive market concentration and the non-competitive and discriminatory marketing practices that accompany them have tipped the scales in favor of the packers and processors at the expense of livestock producers. Our current heavily concentrated and dysfunctional marketing system amounts to the legalized looting of rural America. It is high time the federal regulatory agencies stepped up to the plate and did their job to enforce the law,” he said.

Nebraska Farmers Union warned livestock producers to not be confused or frightened by meat packer threats to discontinue premiums from the market if the GIPSA regulations are passed. “If there is a legitimate basis and rationale for a premium paid to producers, there should be no legitimate reason to discontinue the premium. If there is not a legitimate rationale for a premium however, it is probably because it is preferential pricing, which should not be tolerated. The business of paying premiums to your buddies must end,” said Hansen.

“The political strategy of the meat packers and their allies is to confuse livestock producers and the public so they can delay the current set of proposed regulations as long as possible and prevent the consideration of the next issue up which is captive supply and packer ownership of livestock,” Hansen said. “For the same reasons the meat packers want to delay the process, we want the process to move forward,” Hansen concluded.

Nebraska Farmers Union has been a state and national leader in efforts to prod the Anti-trust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Packers and Stockyards Division of USDA, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to enforce the laws that are already on the books. The mission of Nebraska Farmers Union is to improve the economic well being and quality of life of family farmers and ranchers, and the rural communities they live in.

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