The Agency's Packers and Stockyards Program (P&SP) promotes fair business practices and competitive environments to market livestock, meat, and poultry. Through its oversight activities, including monitoring programs, reviews, and investigations, P&SP fosters fair competition, provides payment protection, and guards against deceptive and fraudulent trade practices that affect the movement and price of meat animals and their products. P&SP's work protects consumers and members of the livestock, meat, and poultry industries.
In the words of the Congress, the purpose of the Packers and Stockyards (P&S) Act is ''to assure fair competition and fair trade practices, to safeguard farmers and ranchers...to protect consumers...and to protect members of the livestock, meat, and poultry industries from unfair, deceptive, unjustly discriminatory and monopolistic practices...'' P&SP's major enforcement areas are payment protection, unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent practices, and competition.
P&SP's work encompasses a wide range of activities. Details of those activities can be found on this web site. The activities include:
- Administering programs involving payment protection for livestock, bonding, packer trust, and surveillance of custodial accounts.
- Conducting major investigations involving fraud, unfair competition, and deceptive practices.
- Ensuring accurate scales and accurate weighing of livestock, meat, and poultry.
- Monitoring market performance.
- Carrying out the payment and statutory trust provisions of the Poultry Producers Financial Protection Act of 1987.
- Continuing certification of the "clear title" systems established and implemented under the Food Security Act of 1985 to ensure that livestock and poultry are not paid for twice.
- Reviewing stockyard services, handling practices, and facilities.
Last Modified: 09/02/2008
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