National Family Farm Coalition submitted the following comments to GIPSA (Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration) on June 12, 2017:
These comments are submitted in regard to 9 CFR Part 201, Federal Register Number 2017-07361, posted April 12, 2017, on behalf of the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC). The NFFC represents 25 grassroots member organizations and thousands of family farmers, ranchers, fishermen and rural advocates, and is allied with farmworker, consumer and public interest groups throughout the nation.
NFFC urges you to allow the Interim Final Rule (IFR) to become effective immediately. The Fair Farmer Practices Rules will protect family farmers and ranchers from abusive and anti-competitive practices, but their implementation has been delayed again and again. It is time for family farmers and ranchers to receive these very basic protections for which they have waited far too long while meatpackers and processors consolidate and exert even more power over their livelihoods as well as our food system.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments in support of the immediate implementation of the Interim Final Rule and the finalization of the Farmer Fair Practices Rules.