Farm Action has submitted a public comment urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revise its proposed rule by eliminating the poultry tournament system. This comment was submitted in response to the department’s Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems proposal, the third proposed rule to strengthen the Packers and Stockyards Act.
The comment noted, “We remain convinced, based on the law and the lived experiences of countless growers, that the Tournament System is inherently unfair and per se violates the Packers and Stockyards Act.”
While the USDA’s proposal is a “crucial and overdue step forward,” and Farm Action supports its adoption, the comment noted that the USDA should include revisions aimed at dismantling the tournament system, which has enabled integrators to abuse farmers for decades.
Farm Action urges USDA to strengthen its proposed rule by:
- Requiring integrators to provide poultry producers with a fair base price.
- Banning the tournament system outright or, at a minimum, protecting growers from unfair discrimination by capping the comparison-based pay so that it cannot equal or exceed 25% of the grower's total pay.
- Requiring integrators to offer growers contract terms that are of sufficient length to ensure a return on investment for any capital improvements requested or required by the integrator.
- Increasing USDA’s oversight of the financial disclosures that this proposed rule requires integrators to share with growers when requesting capital improvements.
To illustrate the need for this reform, Farm Action recently hosted a roundtable discussion with current and former poultry farmers who recounted the abuse and loss of livelihood they experienced within the tournament system. This event garnered the interest of growers, advocates, Congressional staff, and media.
Following this event, Farm Action rallied nearly 600 supporters to also submit public comments calling on the USDA to strengthen this proposed rule to better protect America’s poultry farmers, making up the majority of public comments submitted on the proposed rule.
Farm Action’s comments echo those made in June 2022 when USDA issued an advanced notice of a proposed rulemaking to collect information from stakeholders. Farm Action’s response to the advanced notice of a proposed rulemaking condemned the tournament system’s inherent unfairness and stated that it violates the ban on unfair practices within the P&S Act.
Source: Farm Action
