Synopsis "USDA's "GIPSA Rule" on Livestock and Poultry Marketing Practices"
The 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246) included new provisions that amended the Packers and Stockyards Act (P&S Act) to give poultry and swine growers the right to cancel contracts, to require that poultry processors clearly disclose to growers additional required capital investments, to set the choice of law and venue in contract disputes, and to give poultry and swine growers the right to decline an arbitration clause that requires arbitration to resolve contract disputes. The farm bill required USDA to propose rules to implement these provisions. On June 22, 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) published a proposed rule to implement regulations (9 C.F.R. 201) on livestock and poultry marketing practices as mandated by the 2008 farm bill. The proposed rule, commonly referred to as the "GIPSA rule," added new regulations to clarify conduct that violates the P&S Act. The P&S Act regulations are used by USDA to ensure fair competition in livestock and poultry markets. In what some saw as a major change from current practice, GIPSA proposed that a violation of the P&S Act does not require a finding of "harm or likely harm to competition." The proposed rule set criteria for "unfair, discriminatory, and deceptive practices" and "undue or unreasonable preference or advantages" that violate the P&S Act. The proposed rule also included arbitration provisions to ensure that contract growers have a meaningful opportunity to participate in arbitration and the right to decline arbitration. According to proponents of the proposed rule implementing the farm bill provisions, the rule brought fairness to contracts and reshaped interactions between producers and large meat packers and poultry processors. Opponents argued that the proposed rule went far beyond the intent of Congress in the 2008 farm bill, and that the rule altered business practices to the detriment of producers, consumers, and the industries. USDA issued a final rule on December 9, 2011, which went into effect on February 7, 2012. The final rule, a significant modification of the proposed rule, included four provisions that address, respectively, suspension of the delivery of birds, additional capital investments, remedy of breach of contract, and arbitration. In November 2011, before USDA finalized the GIPSA rule, Congress passed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012 (P.L. 112-55), which prohibited USDA from finalizing or implementing the most contentious parts of the rule. Congress has continued to enact such an appropriations rider in each subsequent fiscal year.
