Date: July 20, 2007 Lincoln, Nebraska Contact Information: Fred Stokes, 662-476-5568 or 601-527-2459 Michael Stumo, 413-854-2580 |
OCM Disappointed by Anti-Farmer Vote of
House Ag Committee on Arbitration
The Organization for Competitive Markets expressed its disappointment in the House Ag Committee vote to allow packer lawyers to force farmers into arbitration proceedings. A House Subcommittee previously approved Rep. Leonard Boswell’s (D IA) bill to allow farmers a choice of whether to arbitrate if there is a legal dispute between a producer and a processor or packer. Led by Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R VA) and Mike Rogers (R AL), five Democrats, including Chairman Collin Peterson, joined all committee Republicans to deny farmers their right to court access that our Founding Fathers provided all citizens. The vote list is at the end of this release. “Packer lawyers routinely place language in contracts requiring all disputes to go to arbitration,” said Keith Mudd, OCM President. “Farmers sign these take-it-or-leave it contracts without knowing whether there will be a dispute, or what any dispute will be. Arbitration is very expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars more than court cases. Farmers have to pay large sums to start arbitration, and have to pay the hourly rate of one to five lawyers that act as the arbitrators.” Packers like to force arbitration on producers because the cost deters producers from enforcing their rights, and because packers face the same arbitrators repeatedly and know which ones are or are not favorable. Producers do not have this knowledge. Judges in the court system, however, are paid a salary and do not have this bias. Arbitration rulings are kept secret from the public. If a packer is found liable for fraud or other misconduct in providing chickens, feed, or in weighing or paying for animals, that information is secret. No one else can find out this information. Other producers can easily continue being victims. “The U.S. court system is the best and fairest in the world,” continued Mudd. “Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, Sanderson Farms and other processors with arbitration clauses apparently dislike fairness. We hope the Senate Agriculture Committee votes for producer access to the courts later this year.” Roll Call Vote Results |
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Voting FOR farmers’ Democrats
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Voting AGAINST farmers’ Democrats
Republicans
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The Organization for Competitive Markets is an nonprofit organization working for open and competitive markets as well as fair trade for American food producers, consumers and rural communities.