I resigned from my role in the Obama-Biden administration in 2012, knowing that I had accomplished all I could to protect farmers and ranchers — an effort which was hindered by the level of influence that agriculture corporations had on our political landscape. However, in the last four years, I have seen the Biden-Harris administration take on big ag to a degree not seen since Theodore Roosevelt was in office.
I formerly served as the administrator of the now-defunct Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA), an agency within USDA tasked with protecting the interests of farmers and ranchers.
I was encouraged to see that despite setbacks and pushback from big ag lobbyists, USDA proposed the Farmer Fair Practice Rules at the very end of the Obama-Biden administration, which updated and clarified the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (P&S Act). After decades without enforcement of this critical law, USDA sought to improve protections for farmers who were being cheated by the massive corporations that now control our agriculture system.
But when President Donald Trump took office, his administration got rid of the rule changes and then dissolved the GIPSA agency altogether. Enforcement of the P&S Act became virtually nonexistent thereby undoing the progress we previously made to protect America’s farmers and ranchers.
In a much-needed reversal, the Biden-Harris administration has racked up critical wins for poultry growers and livestock producers. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the USDA has proposed five new rules to strengthen the P&S Act, and the Department of Justice sued Agri Stats, a data analytics company, for an alleged price-fixing scheme involving major pork, poultry, and turkey processors. DOJ sued Sanderson Farms, Wayne Farms, and Continental Grain and won. The USDA also reformed the “Product of USA” label loophole so that only animals born, raised, and slaughtered in the U.S. can utilize that label.
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We now desperately need a president who will continue this work and not bend to the will of the largest corporations in our food and agriculture system. Why? Because once again, we find ourselves at a crucial juncture as the largest poultry companies and meatpackers ramp up their efforts to reverse this progress.
If we want to fight these massive corporations that take from the family farmer, we need all the resources we can get, and that includes the government wielding its antitrust enforcement laws. Sometimes, you can be allies without being close friends. I know what it takes; I have won and lost in this fight over the last 30 years — government antitrust enforcement and civil actions are essential to leveling the playing field. Otherwise, farmers will continue as price takers, not price makers, in this market, and these corporations will continue to burden and destroy our rural communities.
I firmly believe the viability of rural America is at stake. Do you want to have mom-and-pop stores, farmers, and ranchers? Or do you want to have conglomerates? I am asking those in rural America to take off your political party glasses, recognize these facts, and vote in the upcoming presidential election.
J. Dudley Butler has been a lawyer for nearly five decades and served as the administrator for USDA's now-defunct Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration during President Barack Obama’s administration.
