The Biden administration’s Poultry Transparency Rule went into effect on Monday, but Steve Etka, policy director of the Campaign for Contract Agriculture Reform, said in a news release that he is worried that appropriators may block the impact of it and other regulations under the Packers and Stockyards Act that are intended to address abusive and deceptive practices of poultry companies and meatpackers in their dealings with farmers and ranchers.
“The poultry transparency rule is critical because it requires poultry companies to be fully transparent with contract poultry growers about what their contracts mean, and what they don’t mean,” Etka said.
“For instance, one of the rule’s requirements is that poultry companies disclose the minimum annual flock placements and density they are guaranteeing the growers. Another requirement is that poultry companies provide growers with more information about the factors that determine their pay. This is important information that growers need to run their farm businesses.
“As poultry companies (or ‘integrators’) have started to send contract addenda to growers to disclose the number of flocks and flock density they will guarantee, many growers have been shocked to learn their integrators are not willing to guarantee them enough flocks to be financially viable,” Etka said.
“While the integrators may decide to provide more flocks than the minimum, there is no guarantee of that.”
“This underscores that most poultry contacts are often not economically sustainable for growers. Growers go deeply into debt to build expensive chicken houses on their farms as a prerequisite to entering into a contract relationship with a poultry company. But the commitments made by the poultry company to the grower are often very flimsy.
“As a result, growers are vulnerable to financial ruin based on decisions made by the poultry company and out of control of the grower.” Etka added, “We are particularly concerned that the House fiscal year 2024 Agriculture Appropriations bill includes a dangerous policy ‘rider’ that would block this important regulation, and several other Packers and Stockyards Act regulations proposed by USDA to encourage fair competition and end abusive and deceptive practices in the livestock and poultry sectors.
“We strongly urge Congress to reject that policy rider and to ensure it is not included in the final FY 2024 Agriculture Appropriations bill.”
