Senator Chuck Grassley has concerns about the Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). Namely, that the Packers and Stockyards Act has not been enforced “vigorously” be previous administrations. J. Dudley Butler hopes to change that perception.
Butler, a Mississippi attorney, will run the United States Department of Agriculture’s GIPSA. According to GIPSA’s website, the agency is charged with, “facilitate[ing] the marketing of livestock, poultry, meat, cereals, oilseeds, and related agricultural products, and promotes fair and competitive trading practices for the overall benefit of consumers and American agriculture.” As Butler told the Organization for Competitive Markets at their annual meeting in St. Louis, "I came to Washington to work, that's what I'm going to do and I am going to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act[.]"
The Packers and Stockyards Act was passed in 1921 with the intention of preventing “unfair price discrimination when packers buy livestock from producers.” As Dan Looker, Successful Farming Magazine business editor, writes in his article on the Act and Butler, which can be accessed at Agriculture Online, the 2008 Farm Bill mandates that the agency develop new rules to clarify the enforcement of the law.
Butler expects a draft of the new rules will be prepared by the fall. When the draft rules are available the public is invited to submit comments on the rules. According to Looker’s article, Butler would like the public to submit comments, not only to help prepare the final rules, but also to use the comments to justify the new policies should a lawsuit be brought to strike the rules down.
To read Looker’s article click here.
To visit the GIPSA website click here.
Butler, a Mississippi attorney, will run the United States Department of Agriculture’s GIPSA. According to GIPSA’s website, the agency is charged with, “facilitate[ing] the marketing of livestock, poultry, meat, cereals, oilseeds, and related agricultural products, and promotes fair and competitive trading practices for the overall benefit of consumers and American agriculture.” As Butler told the Organization for Competitive Markets at their annual meeting in St. Louis, "I came to Washington to work, that's what I'm going to do and I am going to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act[.]"
The Packers and Stockyards Act was passed in 1921 with the intention of preventing “unfair price discrimination when packers buy livestock from producers.” As Dan Looker, Successful Farming Magazine business editor, writes in his article on the Act and Butler, which can be accessed at Agriculture Online, the 2008 Farm Bill mandates that the agency develop new rules to clarify the enforcement of the law.
Butler expects a draft of the new rules will be prepared by the fall. When the draft rules are available the public is invited to submit comments on the rules. According to Looker’s article, Butler would like the public to submit comments, not only to help prepare the final rules, but also to use the comments to justify the new policies should a lawsuit be brought to strike the rules down.
To read Looker’s article click here.
To visit the GIPSA website click here.
Posted: 08/11/09
