Appellate judges with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals have sided with the USDA on the Farmer Fair Practice Rules the agency pulled in 2018. The judges ruled the agency was not “arbitrary and capricious” in withdrawing an interim final rule that would have made it easier for farmers and ranchers to sue meatpackers on claims of unfair treatment. The court denied a petition by the Organization for Competitive Markets to review the decision according to Executive Director Joe Maxwell.

He says the court ruled against OCM after USDA dropped the bombshell that they were working on new rules.

Maxwell says the new rules as scheduled to be published in the Federal Register in the spring of 2019. However, they are skeptical about the move.

The OCM contends that USDA violated a congressional mandate given in the 2008 Farm Bill to publish a regulation outlining criteria around contracting practices by June 2010. OCM filed the lawsuit after USDA, withdrew the final interim rules, which were implemented at the end of the Obama Administration in 2016.