After the Mandatory Price Reporting bill was passed, the USDA propounded the 3-60 rule that keeps prices secret in most areas of the country where there is little competition. Incoming Secretary Veneman needs to take a page from Levitt s book to enhance the agricultural marketplace. Full price transparency in every market is needed. Small producers should have access to the same preferential deals that the big guys get. Packer ownership should be banned as unfair and market distorting.
Agriculture needs a strong person to save it from itself as well.
Ann Veneman, USDA USDA is a tremendously large agency with cabinet status and a budget second only to the Department of Defense. The new Secretary of Agriculture is now revealing how she intends to use these resources at her command. The outlook is not good for independent agriculture. On February 22, Veneman gave her first major policy speech at a USDA Economic Research Service conference. On agricultural concentration and the looming demise of independent agriculture, she noted that the combination of globalization, technology, and ever-demanding consumers means a more tightly connected food chain with stronger linkages among producers, processors and retailers.