Rules Meant To Protect Farmers Put On Hold By Agriculture Department
Poultry and egg farmers make up 40 percent of Georgia’s agriculture sector.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press file
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering nixing an Obama-era rule that sought to create more protections for farmers against large agriculture operations.
The USDA is still considering a rule that was supposed to take effect this week. It would have required large poultry companies to stop paying their contract farmers based on peer performance.
It’s sometimes referred to as a “tournament style” pay system, where farmers were paid based on the quality of their chickens compared to other farmers.
Paul Wolfe, senior policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said the companies supply the chickens to begin with.
“They tell the farmers how to raise the chickens and what to feed them,” Wolfe said. “And then base their pay on how well they perform, but farmers don’t control most of the things that determine how well they raise them.”
Another rule would have allowed farmers to sue if they could prove individual damages, instead of industrywide damages. That rule was rejected.
Katelyn McCullock, an economist with the American Farm Bureau, said the bureau opposed the rule because it would have led to frivolous lawsuits.
“Every individual farmer has their own relationships with buyers, and those have different contractual obligations,” McCullock said.
She said the threat of lawsuits would’ve kept companies from being flexible or caused them to cancel contracts with small farmers.
The last rule would’ve established clear guidelines for what’s considered unfair practices. The department decided to take no action on that one.
Ten Georgia Congressmen wrote Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, asking him to get rid of the rule.
They say it’s bad for the industry.
Poultry and egg farmers make up 40 percent of Georgia’s agriculture sector.
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