Rule

In recent years livestock producers, particularly small ones, have been at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis large meatpackers because so many market transactions were unreported. Cash market transactions, which the USDA uses to establish market prices, have been drastically reduced in recent years, replaced by contracts and special arrangements. Without open reporting, fair market prices cannot be established and price discrimination (link) is difficult to prove. In 1998-99, states took matters into their own hands and passed legislation that would require packers to reveal the price they pay whenever they purchase livestock… Read More

In many states, higher prices are offered for large shipments of cattle or hogs, effectively discriminating against smaller producers providing identical products. In the absence of any federal initiatives, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Missouri have all passed price discrimination laws. Efforts in Kansas are currently underway. However, the laws have encountered resistance from meatpackers. South … Read More

In recent years, the largest 7 percent of U.S. farms received approximately three quarters of the market value of all agriculture products sold. About 75 percent of U.S. farms now share a mere 7 percent of the market value. Yet when agricultural payments are distributed, they are blind to the scale of farms. Consequently a small … Read More

As massive, concentrated feedlots spread across the U.S., states are using a variety of techniques to protect their rural economies and environment. States such as Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma have enacted large scale feedlot moratoriums. Some counties have proposed or enacted rules that place various restrictions on feedlot facilities–required setbacks, public hearing process, manure management plans, … Read More

Agribusiness mergers squeeze the food industry into an hourglass- with many producers and consumers but increasingly fewer processors and distributors. Food chain clusters of Monsanto/Cargill, ConAgra, and Novartis/ADM are vertically integrating to control production from “farm gate to dinner plate”. As agribusiness concentrates, their power to buy low from farmers and sell high to consumers increases. … Read More

The ordinance is modeled after the language of the constitutional amendments passed in Nebraska and South Dakota that ban corporate farms in those states. Similar laws have passed in Thompson Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania and Wells Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania. According to the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), as of late 2004, 78 Pennsylvania townships have passed laws banning corporate involvement in agriculture. Several townships have passed laws stripping corporations of constitutional protections and powers.… Read More