Senators want USDA to delay poultry rulemaking

The Senate’s Chicken Caucus wants to extend the comment period on a new proposed rule aimed at combating discriminatory practices in animal agriculture contracting.

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The United States Senate’s Chicken Caucus wants to extend the comment period on a new proposed rule aimed at combating discriminatory practices in animal agriculture contracting.

On November 18, 2022, the offices of Senators Chris Coons, D-Delaware, and Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, sent a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking the agency to extend the December 2, 2022, comment deadline by 180 days. The letter was cosigned by 17 other senators representing poultry growing and egg farming states.

The proposed rule, published in the October 3, 2022, edition of the Federal Register, is called “Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity under the Packers and Stockyards Act” by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) which published the rule.

It would, according to a factsheet published by the AMS:

  • Protect people at higher risk of unjust treatment in the marketplace, based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation.
  • Ban retaliatory practices to protect activities such as: communicating with government agencies, joining producer or grower associations, being a witness in a proceeding against a packer or live poultry dealer, and asserting legal and contractual rights.
  • Offer protection against deceptive contracts that are false, misleading, and result in harm to producers.
  • Inspect relevant records to better monitor compliance with the Act.

The 46-page proposed rule specifically targets what it calls “undue prejudices or disadvantages and discriminatory practices” and “deceptive practices.”  The senators’ letter said concerned parties need more time to understand its complexities and send comments to regulators before the AMS moves ahead.  

“(It) introduces novel regulatory concepts, which would have wide-ranging impacts on the contracting for poultry, cattle and hogs,” the letter said. “It would also establish broad recordkeeping obligations on each of these sectors.”

This proposed rule comes after another published in June 2022 focused specifically on the poultry industry. That move would mandate integrators provide new disclosures concerning flock, performance and pay.

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