Pittsboro, NC (December 14, 2016) – Today, the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced new Farmer Fair Practice Rules to protect contract farmers from some of the abusive terms commonly found in contracts with large poultry companies.
Three rules have been released. The rules include:
an interim final rule that specifies that farmers do not have to prove harm to competition in the industry to bring a case against an integrator for harm or unfair practices,
a proposed rule containing criteria GIPSA would use to judge the fairness of a poultry grower ranking system (aka tournament system) used to calculate farmer payment, and
a proposed rule to define “undue or unreasonable preference” under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
In response to this announcement, Sally Lee, Program Director at RAFI, along with North Carolina and Arkansas poultry farmers Craig Watts, Mitchell Crutchfield, and Reid Phifer, have issued the following statements:
“We applaud USDA in standing up for the family farmer by moving forward with the Farmer Fair Practice Rules. We hope these rules will begin to establish a new baseline of fairness for farmers in the poultry and livestock industries,” said Sally Lee, Program Director at Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) and co-director of the upcoming documentary film Under Contract, which investigates the struggles poultry farmers face.
“The USDA is moving in the right direction when it comes to mitigating the imbalance of power that exists in a contract poultry arrangement. I hope these rules do in fact become a deterrent against the well documented instances of unfair or retaliatory practices the industry uses against farmers,” added Craig Watts, a former poultry grower with Perdue Farms from North Carolina.
“This is a good first step. Every individual has the right to equal protection under the law provided by our constitution. As an American I should never have to prove “competitive injury” in an attempt to access justice. I hope these rules put an end to that,” said Reid Phifer, current poultry farmer, also from North Carolina.
“Our contract was terminated and we are facing possibly losing our farm. Growers not having to prove competitive injury is a huge gain toward grower fairness and could enable GIPSA to enforce the Rules (202 a &b) that we already have in the Packers and Stockyards Act, this alone could have completely changed our out come,” said Mitchell Crutchfield, former poultry farmer with Tyson Foods in Arkansas.
Watch the trailer for our documentary, Under Contract, below. We expect to release the film on February 1st, 2017.
Since October 2017, Sally Lee serves as RAFI's first Associate Director. Sally completed a joint master in Agricultural Economics and International Rural Development, assessing farmer risk in American poultry production contracts while at the University of Humboldt in Berlin. She has a background in social justice, including working at RAFI previously for four years with the Agricultural Justice Project, a social justice certification program for farms and businesses. She also worked as the Social Justice Consultant for Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in contributing to the development of the Sustainability Assessments for Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) indicators.
The nomination period for FSA County Committees is now open! Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Committees consist of a small group of farmers who are each elected for three-year terms. Committees make decisions about the agency’s programs and conduct outreach to other farmers to improve participation and access to services.
This has been a crucial year for the fight against an agribusiness-dominated food system. Looking back over 2014, we are reminded of how many people have come together to help create the just and sustainable agricultural community that we envision. We are proud of the accomplishments that came out of our work this year, and we will continue to work together to cultivate markets, policies, and communities that support thriving, socially just, and environmentally sound family farms. 2015 will be essential in our efforts to challenge the influence of big agribusiness and sustain our growing movement for just and sustainable agriculture. This will require courage and persistence across the board, on all levels…
“It’s really rewarding to see farmers who are innovative and to come up with the idea of something a little bit new or a different take on something old,” she says. “To see young people get involved in operations, that’s definitely been rewarding.”
