USDA-DOJ Competition Workshop

USDA-DOJ Competition Workshop in Colorado. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice have been holding joint public workshops to explore competition issues affecting the agriculture industry in the 21st century and the appropriate role for antitrust and regulatory enforcement in that industry. These are the first joint USDA/DOJ workshops ever to be held to discuss agricultural competition and regulatory issues. On Friday the fourth of five workshops was held in Colorado with Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack opening the meeting. VILSACK: There are many ingredients for someone to get into farming and ranching. He or she needs to have access to capital, to get the land equipment and livestock. They need to be willing to take significant risks and work very hard and they need to know there is an open and competitive market for their livestock and commodities. Livestock producers are extraordinarily innovative despite enduring some very difficult times and USDA was designed to support producer's ability to join together, to market their products, to find value added opportunities and to enter into contract arrangements. U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder talks about the workshops. HOLDER: The discussion we have gathered to begin reflects an historic partnership between the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture and leaders from across our nation's agricultural industry. As Secretary Vilsack mentioned we kicked of this workshop series nearly 6 months ago and so far have explored competition issues in seed, pork, poultry and dairy industries. Vilsack says that some new figures are becoming quite troubling. VILSACK: Now there are some troubling statistics concerning the livestock sector. The top 4 cattle packers control roughly 80% of steer and heifer procurement and the top 4 hog packers control roughly 65% of hog procurement. In 1994 the spot market for hogs was 62%, today it is only roughly 5% nationally and new figures just recently developed are showing it dipping below 4% for the first time ever. Holder says there have been some price discrepancies lately and they intend on looking into it. HOLDER: We're also eager to discuss the fact that today many producers and consumers are unsure whether they are getting a fair shake. Farmer's have noticed discrepancies between prices at the grocery store and prices paid to producers for their livestock or for their crops. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.