Fair and Competitive Markets

USDA has published the report, “Agricultural Competition: A Plan In Support Of Fair And Competitive Markets” that sets out USDA’s strategies to increase competition through investing in new competitors to address major bottlenecks in the food and agricultural supply chains, in particular meat and poultry processing and domestic fertilizer capacity. It also highlights USDA’s comprehensive efforts to reinvigorate competition and fair market regulation and oversight, and USDA’s efforts to enhance value-added competitive opportunities for producers, including the already-announced top-to-bottom review of the “Product of USA” label for beef and a newly announced review of animal-raising claims, among many other strategies and efforts.

• View the Agricultural Competition: A Plan In Support Of Fair And Competitive Markets Report

The Interim Competition and Fair Practices in Meat Merchandising report identifies potential problematic fees and unjust or anticompetitive pricing strategies present in the beef market as a case study. The report is interim because industry cooperation was only partial. USDA is also continuing an investigative study, including enforcing subpoenas where necessary. Additionally, in the upcoming months, USDA will issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) seeking public input around how best to address practices used in meat merchandising that may violate the Packers and Stockyards Act.

View the Interim Report

Under the Agricultural Competition Partnership, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is uniting with state attorneys general to enhance competition in the middle of the supply chain to help create fairer markets and more resilient supply chains.

 Building on the Biden-Harris Executive Order’s “Whole-of-Government” approach, the partnership will provide funding to state attorney general offices (AGOs) to enhance fairness and competition in the food and agriculture markets. The USDA will use up to $15 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan for projects that will improve the capacity of state attorneys general for enforcement, research, education, and innovation. Any state attorneys general who would like to request funding should send a letter of intent to USDA.

View the Letter from State Attorneys General to USDA (pdf)

View USDA’s press release announcing the Agricultural Competition Partnership

View the list of states and attorneys general participating in the partnership

View FAQs with more information about the partnership 

All growers, whether they are plant breeders, seed companies, or farmers, deserve a fair shake. The Farmer Seed Liaison is a point of contact within the USDA that can help those who work with seeds navigate a complex system. It aims to bridge the gap between seed growers and the intellectual property system, licensing and labeling enforcers, and antitrust regulators, to name a few. The seed liaison can also help connect plant breeders and variety developers with funding opportunities, to add diversity to the seed system and to provide farmers with more and better choices, this season and beyond.

• Learn more about the Seed Liaison and USDA’s actions to enhance transparency and promote fair competition in seed and agricultural markets, including a newly announced, multipart Seed Competition Framework.
• See USDA’s collaboration with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
• View USDA’s report, “More and Better Choices for Farmers: Promoting Fair Competition and Innovation in Seeds and Other Agricultural Input Industries (pdf)

AMS’s Packers and Stockyards Division is seeking comment on ways to improve price discovery, and fair and competitive trading environments in fed cattle markets. The Price Discovery and Competition in Markets for Fed Cattle Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), will present a series of potential regulatory interventions and requests comment on their potential efficacy, in whole or in part, in addressing these concerns. 

Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

Summary: The Agricultural Marketing Service published the Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets Proposed Rule in the Federal Register. The purpose of this proposed rule is to would provide clarity regarding the interpretation of “unfair” under section 202(a) of the P&S Act for the USDA, courts, and private parties to further the understanding of what conduct the P&S Act prohibits. This proposed rule, if finalized, would provide a workable guideline on how the prohibitions on unfair practices will operate and be enforced. AMS would use the guideline to fulfill its statutory obligation to ensure fair and competitive national livestock and poultry markets and ensure livestock producers and poultry growers receive the full value for their products and services. Fairer, more competitive markets enable greater choice, quality, and fairer prices in the meat and poultry processing markets, delivering benefits for working family consumers of meat and poultry. Stakeholders and other interested parties have 60 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register to submit comments via the Regulations.gov web portal. All comments submitted will be considered as USDA develops a final rule. 

View the proposed rule. 

The Agricultural Marketing Service published the Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems Proposed Rule in the Federal Register. The purpose of this proposed rule is to increase transparency and address unfairness and deception in broiler grower payments, poultry grower ranking systems (commonly known as tournaments), and capital improvement systems. The operation of tournament systems and the associated contracts between broiler chicken growers and live poultry dealers (LPDs) commonly exhibit a range of problematic practices. This proposed rule addresses these issues to improve tournaments and increase fairness of broiler contracts. Stakeholders and other interested parties have 60 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register to submit comments via the Regulations.gov web portal. All comments submitted will be considered as USDA develops a final rule. 

View the proposed rule.

The Agricultural Marketing Service published the Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Under the Packers and Stockyards Act final rule. The final rule will be effective 60 days following publication in the Federal Register. The rule establishes clearer, more effective standards under the Packers and Stockyards (P&S) Act for prohibited practices relating to discrimination, retaliation and deception in contracting. This rule will help producers and growers who have suffered from increasingly consolidated markets over the last 30 years by enhancing market integrity and ensuring fair access to economic opportunities.  

• View the Final Rule on Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity
• View the Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Fact Sheet (pdf)

AMS has finalized the Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments rule. The rule requires Live Poultry Dealers to give critical information about terms of their agreements to the poultry growers with whom they contract to raise birds. The final rule requires a “Live Poultry Dealer Disclosure Document” that provides growers with information they need to have a better understanding of realistic outcomes they can expect before making important financial decisions, such as capital-intensive facility improvements or taking out loans. In particular, the rule requires that dealers disclose earnings for growers by quintile, establish minimum flock placements, and explain variable costs growers may incur and how companies handle certain important circumstances such as sick flocks and natural disasters. It also establishes an accountability and governance framework that must be certified by the poultry company’s CEO. The rule separately requires dealers provide tournament-specific disclosures of inputs to poultry growers who are paid using a poultry grower ranking system and requires that companies also show the distribution of inputs, housing specifications, and any feed disruptions for all the growers in the tournament, at the time of payment. This rule is part of a suite of Packers and Stockyards Act rules proposed by USDA to enhance transparency, stop discrimination, and support market fairness in a range of circumstances.

• View the Final Rule for Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments
• View the Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments Fact Sheet (pdf)

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to create a Cattle Contracts Library Pilot Program to increase market transparency for cattle producers. 

USDA published the final rule to secure the contract information needed to populate the library in the Federal Register on Dec. 7, 2022. The final rule requires packers who slaughtered an average of not less than five percent of the number of fed cattle slaughtered nationally during the immediately preceding five calendar years to submit contractual information for the purchase of cattle. The final rule went into effect Jan. 6, 2023, and the library was made available to the public on Jan. 31, 2023.

AMS will continue the Cattle Contracts Library Pilot Program in its present form in order to continue reporting vital market information for farmers and ranchers while gathering additional information on the effectiveness of the pilot.
All information related to the library pilot is posted on the AMS Cattle Contract Library webpage.

If you are a farmer, rancher, or agricultural producer, and have a problem or would like to report a possible violation of the law, please file your complaint at the Farmer Fairness Portal.

• USDA has launched a public inquiry into anti-competitive structures and conduct in several food and agricultural industries, including seed, fertilizer, and in retail.
  • Review the RFIs
  • Read the Comment Summary on Access to Fertilizer: Competition and Supply Chain Concerns (pdf)
• The DOJ and FTC launched a public inquiry seeking comment on merger guidelines that the agencies use to assess whether mergers or acquisitions may lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly. More information is available at Regulations.gov

Congress recognized that agricultural input and packing industries in some regions could be the only choices for farmers, and could thereby exercise their market power to increase costs or reduce payment for farmers. In response to farmers’ concerns over a century ago, Congress passed antitrust laws that prohibited monopolization, including by railroad and meatpacker trusts that combined production factories, stockyards, refrigerated rail cars, and other business lines. Recognizing (pdf) that farmers’ coordination of market activities could violate the antitrust laws, Congress through the Capper-Volstead Act permitted a limited antitrust exemption to farmer-owned and democratically elected cooperatives to possess and coordinate production, processing, and distribution activities. If you are interested in starting up or learning more about farmer-owned cooperatives, please see USDA Rural Development’s Cooperative Services webpage.

Congress also authorized USDA programs to enhance market competitiveness for U.S. farmers and ranchers, protect domestic food security, and promote the orderly production and distribution of agricultural products. Programs span all business lines in the food supply chain, including breeding new plant varieties that grow optimally in your region, conservation assistance, to grants and loans to build a feed mill. If you are interested in making use of the programs, which include grant funding, loans, and technical assistance, please see USDA’s Local and Regional Food Sector webpage.

As one of several federal agencies authorized by Congress’ laws to protect farmers, ranchers, agricultural producers and the general public from anticompetitive structures and conduct, we take seriously all complaints and enforcement or remediation actions. For more information on problems reported by the public and how we may engage applicable agencies to enforce laws, see the table below. In some cases, state laws and enforcement authorities may be able to help you. Please contact the applicable state agencies for assistance.