The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced more steps to deliver on the President’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy to promote fair and competitive markets for American farmers and ranchers, and lower food prices for American families.
USDA published an interim report that assesses competitive conditions in the meat retail industry. The report draws on over 1,600 comments received from the public in response to USDA requests for information, interviews with small, medium, and large meatpackers, distributors, retailers, academics, and farmer or advocacy organizations. It identifies hidden fees and unjust or anticompetitive pricing strategies present in the beef market as a case study.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) conducted an investigative study, took public comment, and supported academic examination of the topic.
USDA also announced the next steps in a new rulemaking effort under the Packers & Stockyards Act of 1921 to enhance price discovery and fairness in cattle markets.
For years, USDA has fielded complaints from producers around beef packers using reported regional cash or spot prices as base prices for fed cattle formula pricing agreements, commonly known as Alternative Marketing Agreements (AMAs).
USDA is issuing an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to seek comment on several possible interventions to develop new benchmarks as AMA base prices and approaches to trading when using benchmarks.
The actions were announced by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a Farmers and Ranchers in Action event hosted by the White House.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.