The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) recently published one interim final rule and two proposed rules with the potential to widely impact production contracts across the animal protein industry. The rules— rebranded by GIPSA as the “Farmer Fair Practices Rules”—address injury to competition, tournament systems, and unfair trade practices. They reflect longstanding GIPSA efforts to revive parts of the so-called “GIPSA Rule” originally proposed in 2010 and based on the 2008 Farm Bill. A series of legislative appropriations restrictions prevented GIPSA from moving forward on these proposals until this year.
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