Wellstone introduces ag anti-trust legislation

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- Amidst concerns that an increase in the concentration of agriculture is harming family farmers, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, DFL-Minn., on Wednesday, introduced legislation to combat anti-competitive practices.

The legislation, known as The Farmers and Ranchers Fair Competition Act, is a response to a growing agricultural trend that has concentrated more market power in the hands of a few large agribusinesses. Senate democratic Leader Tom Daschle of S.D. and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy of Vermont, are co-sponsors.

"This is an effort to restore fairness and competition to the farm economy," Wellstone said. "Right now, large agribusinesses use their economic and political power to muscle family farmers to the margins of the farm economy."

The farm economy, because of the large cooperatives and factory farms, is very one-sided and competition needs to be restored if the family farms are to survive, he said.

"Whether it comes to mergers, contracts, or the disclosure of information, this bill will open up the agriculture business to healthy public scrutiny and evaluation as to whether or not business practices are fair or anti-competitive," Wellstone said.

Any practices found to be unfair and anti-competitive will allow an opportunity for farmers to be compensated, he said.

Under the legislation, practices in transactions involving agricultural commodities will be declared unlawful.

The bill will also:

* Establish a pre-merger review to ensure that proposed mergers do not harm family farmers and ranchers and give the Department of Agriculture the authority to level fines for violations.

* Establish a commission that will provide compensation for production and marketing contracts, as well as prohibit confidentiality requirements for those contracts.

* Require agriculture-related businesses that do $100 million or more of business per year to report to the Department of Agriculture all strategic alliances, ownership in other agribusiness or agriculture-related firms, interlocking boards of directors and lobbyists.

* Require a government study of agriculture concentration, including farm-to-retail price spreads, the impact of right of first refusal contract provisions on competitive opportunities for producers and other important trends that affect competition in agriculture.

"It is clear that there is a growing consensus in Congress that we need to address the issue of concentration in agriculture," Wellstone said. "These concerns can no longer be brushed to the side."