Meat industry submits final comments on GIPSA proposal
Members of the poultry industry called the proposed changes to the production and marketing of poultry and livestock unconstitutional, unsupported by any meaningful economic analysis, and in defiance of court rulings and Congressional mandates. The proposed regulation should be withdrawn and rewritten, the industry said.
"The proposed rule is ill-advised, exceeds GIPSA's statutory authority, and, for some provisions, is unconstitutionally vague," said a 45-page letter signed by George Watts, president of the National Chicken Council, and John Starkey, president of the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. "GIPSA fails to provide an adequate justification for imposing such sweeping and detrimental changes to the poultry industry and does not explain corresponding benefits to counterbalance the hundreds of millions of dollars of detrimental effects this proposal will have on the U.S. economy."