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Taking a Stand to Support Farmer Co-ops It’s a first. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the USDA are holding a series of workshops across the country this year to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. Concern over competition in the ag industry is nothing new. This time, however, farmer-owned co-ops and their protection under the Capper-Volstead Act could be in jeopardy. The Capper-Volstead Act was created by Congress in 1922 to provide limited immunity from antitrust laws so that farmers could legally join together in cooperative associations for their mutual benefit. The interpretation of the Act has come into question in an anti-trust case against the Eastern Mushroom Marketing Cooperative (EMMC) of Pennsylvania. That case is currently under appeal. Far-reaching impact on farm cooperatives “Even though this case involves a single co-op marketing a single commodity, the court’s ultimate ruling could have far reaching implications for thousands of farmer co-ops and their owner-members across the country,” said Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC). “Protecting the Capper-Volstead Act—and the ability of farmers to form cooperatives—is at the heart of NCFC’s mission.” Adding fuel to the fire is the current administration’s scrutiny of concentration in U.S. agriculture. The DOJ/USDA workshops are exploring those concentration issues along with the role for antitrust and regulatory enforcement. According to NCFC, the Capper-Volstead Act will be a topic of inquiry and officials will be looking at the scope and relevance of the Act’s protections for farmer-cooperatives. Four workshops have already taken place with the fifth and final one to be held in Washington, D.C. in December. These workshops, along with the comment from the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney that the Capper-Volstead Act “may not be the right law for the state of the industry at this time”, has supporters of farmer-cooperatives worried about the future of farm cooperatives. “Capper-Volstead is still very significant, because it allows farm operators to organize effectively and to judiciously use what market power they gain through cooperative marketing and bargaining associations,” says Bill Oemichen, President and CEO of the Madison, WI-based Cooperative Network. “Without Capper-Volstead, many farmer cooperatives would cease to exist and the farmers and communities they serve would suffer irreparable harm.” While Capper-Volstead does provide some protection against immunity, that protection is limited, explains NCFC. In order to qualify for protection under the Act, farmer cooperatives must meet several requirements, including the fact that voting members must be producers and that the co-op must conduct more than half of its business with members. As a protection against potential monopolistic activity, the Act gives the Secretary of Agriculture authority to prevent cooperatives from using their market power to unduly enhance the price of the products they market. NCFC says it believes that repealing the Act would be economically devastating and would create tremendous uncertainty for farmers and their cooperatives, employees, suppliers, lenders and customers, as well as rural communities. It adds that loss of the Capper-Volstead Act would result in less rather than more competition by removing farmers’ ability to have some market power in an economy dominated by large companies. Time to get involved To inform farmers, legislators, and consumers about the threat to farmer-cooperatives, and the important role they play in our economy and food system, the NCFC has initiated an educational campaign, communicating some of the following facts about cooperatives:
The organization has provided an NCFC Grassroots Action Center http://ncfc.360actioncenter.com on its web site. Form letters, which can be customized, are available and can be sent directly to your Congressional delegation online. In addition to background information on Capper-Volstead and the issue at hand, NCFC includes talking points or sample letters to the editor and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. If you’d like to take a stand to support your cooperative, Farmers Ranchers Cooperative members are encouraged to check out the NCFC site and contact our Congressional Delegation and/or Governor’s office. Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns, Phone: 202-224-4224, Web site: http://johanns.senate.gov/ Senator Ben Nelson, Phone: 202-224-6551, E-mail: senator@bennelson.senate.gov Representative Jeff Fortenberry - District 1, Phone: 202-225-4806, Web Site: http://fortenberry.house.gov/ Representative Lee Terry - District 2, Phone: 202-225-4155, E-mail: talk2lee@mail.house.gov Representative Adrian Smith - District 3, Phone: 202-225-6435, Web site: http://adriansmith.house.gov Governor Dave Heineman, Lincoln Office/State Capitol: Office of the Governor P.O. Box 94848, Lincoln, NE 68509-4848; Phone: 402-471-2244, Web site: http://www.governor.nebraska.gov/ Senator Tim Johnson, Phone: 202-224-5842, E-mail: tim.johnson.senate.gov Senator John Thune, Phone: 202-224-2321, Web site: http://thune.senate.gov/public/ Representative Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, Phone: 202-225-2801, Web site: http://hersethsandlin.house.gov/ Governor Mike Rounds, Office of the Governor, 500 E. Capitol Ave., Pierre, SD 57501; Phone: 605.773.3212, Web site: http://www.state.sd.us/governor |
