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Public Workshops
Antitrust Division

Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy

Workshop Information

The U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will hold a series of joint public workshops to explore competition issues affecting the agricultural sector in the 21st century and the appropriate role for antitrust and regulatory enforcement in that industry. The first workshop will be held in early 2010.

This page provides information on:

For more information, contact Mark B. Tobey, Special Counsel for State Relations and Agriculture (agriculturalworkshops@usdoj.gov or 202-532-4763).

Updated: 08/27/2010


Overview of the Workshops

These are the first joint Department of Justice/USDA workshops ever to be held to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. The goals of the workshops are to promote dialogue among interested parties and foster learning with respect to the appropriate legal and economic analyses of these issues as well as to listen to and learn from parties with real-world experience in the agricultural sector.

The workshops will address the dynamics of competition in agriculture markets, including buyer power (monopsony) and vertical integration. They will examine legal doctrines and jurisprudence, as well as current economic learning, and will provide an opportunity for farmers, ranchers, consumer groups, processors, agribusiness, and other interested parties to provide examples of potentially anticompetitive conduct and to discuss any concerns about the application of the antitrust laws to the agricultural sectors. The workshops will be transcribed and placed on the public record along with submissions and written comments received.


Dates, Locations, and Topics

March 12, 2010 - Ankeny, Iowa
Issues of Concern to Farmers
Introduction to the workshops series with a focus on the issues facing crop farmers. Discussion topics included seed technology, vertical integration, market transparency and buyer power.

May 21, 2010 - Normal, Alabama
Poultry Industry
Specific areas of focus included production contracts in the poultry industry, concentration and buyer power.

June 25, 2010 - Madison, Wisconsin
Dairy Industry
Specific areas of focus included concentration, marketplace transparency and market dynamics in the dairy industry.

August 27, 2010 - Fort Collins, Colorado
Livestock Industry
This workshop will address beef, hog and other animal sectors. Likely issues for discussion are concentration in livestock markets, buyer power and enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act.

December 8, 2010 - Washington, D.C.
Margins
This workshop will look at the discrepancies between the prices received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers. As a concluding event, discussions from previous workshops will be incorporated into the analysis of agriculture markets nationally.

Physical addresses of workshops.


Press Releases


Prepared Remarks


Federal Register Notice

Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy [74 FR 43725 (08/27/2009)]
(HTML, PDF)


Public Comments

The Antitrust Division and the Department of Agriculture issued a call for public comments when they announced their plan to hold a number of workshops on competition issues in agriculture. Over 15,000 comments from farmers, consumers, academics, elected officials, and industry organizations were submitted.

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Submitting Comments

The deadline for submitting public comments was December 31, 2009.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture continue to welcome comments from the public throughout these workshops. Comments received after the deadline may not be posted online, but will be considered by DOJ and USDA as part of the ongoing dialogue. Any interested person may submit written comments responsive to any of the topics addressed in the Federal Register Notice and the workshops.

Written comments submitted after the deadline should be e-mailed to agriculturalworkshops@usdoj.gov and include “Comment” in the subject line. Electronic submissions must include the original source file (Word, WordPerfect, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.). Submissions in PDF only format will not be accepted.

Note: The size of an e-mail to the Antitrust Division, including all attachments, cannot exceed 10 MB. Accordingly, electronic documents that are voluminous should be submitted to the Antitrust Division using appropriate media (such as CD) to:

Legal Policy Section
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
450 5th Street, NW, Suite 11700
Washington, DC 20001

Privacy and confidentiality: Written submissions and the identity of the submitter may be disclosed, reproduced, and distributed by publication and/or posting on the Department of Justice Web site, at the discretion of the Department of Justice. Information that is submitted in connection with this workshop cannot be maintained as confidential by the Department of Justice. Written submissions should not include any information that the submitting person seeks to preserve as confidential.

Contact for submissions: For more information on making submissions, contact the Antitrust Division by e-mail at agriculturalworkshops@usdoj.gov.



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