At the Cattle Industry Summer Business Meeting, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, talked with the Vice President of Governmental Affairs of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Ethan Lane, about the Livestock fairness proposed rule released in June by USDA and championed by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
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Lane says that the proposal is more of the same from Vilsack. “This administration is not doing well in the polls. That leads to the Whitehouse looking inward and trying to figure out what is resonating with the consumers, or the voters. They really latched on to this as a means of lowering grocery store prices.”
As any cattle producer knows, there is much more that goes into that equation. Vilsack’s agency is trying to push the idea that by leveling the playing field and making it very difficult or impossible to get a premium on your cattle, unless your neighbor gets them too, will somehow lower prices at the grocery store. It might so just that by lowering the prices that producers receive for their cattle.
“It is a passion project for Vilsack. It is something that he has pursued his entire time in office, but timing-wise, it is a very difficult clock for him,” Lane shared. “You are looking for a final rule by the end of this year which coincides with a what is shaping up to be a fairly contentious lame-duck session, and the end of this Congress and perhaps the end of this presidency. There is very little oxygen left in the room for any rule making like this.”
Despite that, Lane said that the Fairness Proposal does provide a blueprint for where the administration’s views are concerning the competition issues. He says that they applaud sameness over success or innovation in the marketplace.
“They celebrate equality of outcome, which is not what our member-passed policy tells us that we are looking for,” he explained. “We are looking for the ability to differentiate product in the marketplace and seek those premiums and increase quality.”
Lane said that this is one possible issue that could be influenced by the Chevron Deference ruling, and that it’s likely that NCBA and other groups may remark to that effect during the public comment on the proposal that is now open into next month. The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
