By Pork news source (11/19/2009)
The U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division and the USDA will hold a series of joint public workshops to explore competition issues affecting the agricultural sector in the 21st century and the appropriate role for antitrust and regulatory enforcement in that industry. The first workshop will be held in early 2010.
These are the first joint DOJ/USDA workshops ever to be held to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The goals of the workshops are to promote dialogue among interested parties and foster learning with respect to the appropriate legal and economic analyses of these issues.
The workshops will address the dynamics of competition in agriculture markets, including buyer power and vertical integration. They will examine legal doctrines and jurisprudence, as well as current economic learning, and will provide an opportunity for farmers, ranchers, consumer groups, processors, agribusiness, and other interested parties to provide examples of potentially anticompetitive conduct and to discuss any concerns about the application of the antitrust laws to the agricultural sectors.
Topics that will be covered during the workshops include the following:
• Application of antitrust laws to monopsony and vertical integration in the agricultural sector, including the scope, functionality, and limits of current or potential rules
• Impact of agriculture concentration on food costs
• The effect of agricultural regulatory statutes or other applicable laws and programs on competition
• Issues relating to patents and intellectual property affecting agricultural marketing or production
• Market practices such as:
o Price spreads
o Forward contracts
o Packer ownership of livestock before slaughter
o Market transparency
o Increasing retailer concentration
The 2010 schedule and topics are:
• March 12, in Ankeny, Iowa — Issues of Concern to Crop Farmers. Will focus on seed technology, vertical integration, market transparency and buyer power.
• May 21, in Normal, Ala. — Poultry Industry. Production contracts will be a major focus. In addition, they will look at concentration and buyer power.
• June 7, in Madison, Wis. — Dairy Industry. The focus may include concentration, marketplace transparency and vertical integration.
• August 26, in Fort Collins, Colo. — Livestock Industry. The session will address beef, hog and other animal sectors and may include enforcement activities of the Packers and Stockyards Act as well as a discussion of concentration.
• December 8, in Washington, DC — Will look at “discrepancies” between the prices received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers.
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