Democracy Forward, a legal group representing the Organization for Competitive Markets has filed a new court brief in their case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Sonny Perdue. O-C-M is challenging USDA’s withdrawal of the Farmer Fair Practice rules designed to protect farms from agribusiness abuse. OCM Executive Director Joe Maxwell says their brief to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals outlines that the Farmer Fair Practice Rules were illegally withdrawn.
He says without the Farmer Fair Practice Rules in place, the average farmer and rancher is at the mercy of Mega companies and Agribusinesses who control the markets.
Maxwell says they’ll have their day in court in the future but on specific date has yet been set.
The Farmer Fair Practice Rules were withdrawn in October of 2017. Maxwell says those regulations would have strengthened the Packers and Stockyards Act.
