DOJ/USDA agriculture antitrust workshops agenda made public

State and national officials will be in Ankeny on March 12 for the beginning of an unprecedented series of workshops on competition in the agricultural industry.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture announced last year that they would jointly host the series on a wide range of topics of interest in the agricultural community. The Iowa event, the first in the series, will serve as both an introduction to the workshops and as an in-depth conversation on the seed industry. 

It marks the first time that the DOJ and USDA have cooperated to investigate and discuss competition and regulatory issues in agriculture.

Christine Varney, assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division, and Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, will provide opening remarks prior to participating in a two-hour roundtable discussion and presentation on issues impacting farmers. Invitations have also been extended, and tentatively accepted, by U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D), U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D).

State-level officials who will participate are Attorney General Tom Miller and Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey. Gov. Chet Culver has been invited, but, according to information provided by the DOJ, has not yet indicated if he will attend.

Following the presentations and discussions, three one-hour panel discussions on specific topics will be held.  The first one-hour panel on seed competition will feature:

• Ray Gaesser, a corn and soybean farmer from Corning and vice president of the American Soybean Association
• Neil E. Harl, a member of the Iowa Bar and a Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor in Agriculture and Emeritus Professor of Economics at Iowa State University
• Dermot Hayes, a professor of economics and finance and Pioneer Chair in Agribusiness from Iowa State University
• Diana Moss, vice president and senior fellow at American Antitrust Institute
• Jim Tobin, vice president of industry affairs at Monsanto Company

The second panel, moderated by Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General Phil Weiser, will discuss agricultural trends and feature:

• Brian Buhr, professor and head of the applied economics department at the University of Minnesota
• Rachael Goodhue, associate professor in the department of agriculture and resource economics at the University of California Davis
• Mary Hendrickson, extension associate professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri
• John Lawrence, professor of economics at Iowa State University
• Chuck Wirtz, a pork producer from Whittemore
• Patrick Woodall, research director at Food & Water Watch

The final panel, a conversation with enforcement officials, will feature:

• Steve Bullock, attorney general for Montana
• Richard Cordray, attorney general for Ohio
• John Ferrell, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the USDA
• Stephen Obie, director of division enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• William Stallings, assistant section chief of the Transportation, Energy and Agriculture Section, Antitrust Division, at the DOJ

Public testimony will follow, and the one-hour period will serve as the time when comments will be accepted from the audience. There are no plans to stream the broadcast, but transcripts will be made available for review after the fact on the Antitrust Division’s Web site. A wealth of introductory materials has also been made available on the DOJ’s Web site.

The Iowa workshop will take place at Des Moines Area Community College, FFA Enrichment Center, beginning at 9 a.m. The facility is requesting that those who plan to attend pre-register using an online form to ensure that enough space is provided for the event.