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GIPSA rule would cost pork industry millions

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says implementation of the GIPSA rule would be devastating to the pork industry.

NPPC past-president Dr. Howard Hill told a Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing last week that a 2010 study by Informa Economics found the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Act would’ve cost the pork industry more than $350 million annually.

“Tens of thousands of comments, including 16,000 from the pork producers, were filed in opposition to the rule.  And Congress several times included riders in the USDA’s annual appropriation bill to prevent it from finalizing the regulation.”

Hill says USDA did not include any such amendment in its Fiscal 2016 Bill.

In a statement to Brownfield, the agency says the rule would ensure fair treatment of livestock and poultry growers and any efforts to block it are not acceptable to the Obama Administration.