I was initially going to title this "USDA Competition Reform Under Threat" but that won't get anyone's attention. The sum total of the impact of this story is that there's a proposed rule (details here) that would dramatically reform the livestock industry to make it more competitive and to take away the unfair advantages factory farms and meatpackers enjoy so that all farmers can fairly compete... and the meat industry is putting Congress and the USDA under heavy pressure to do away with this proposed rule before it goes into effect. The House Ag Committee, in turn, just totally grilled the USDA in a hearing this past week, and they are obviously willing to take action on behalf of the meatpacking and factory farm industries here. Congress NEEDS to hear from us. They need to know that we support fair competition and that we are FOR the proposed GIPSA rule.
I'm leaving Guadalajara tomorrow and likely won't have internet for the next week or so after that, so I can't follow up on this immediately. But I will follow up once I get back in order to provide more information on this so folks can write informed letters to the USDA and to Congress.
