In the wake of USDA Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administrator J. Dudley Butler's announcement Thursday that he will resign, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced late in the day that Alan Christian, deputy administrator for the packers and stockyards program, will serve as acting administrator for GIPSA until an administrator is appointed.

Meanwhile, R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard issued a news release praising Butler for his efforts and expressing disappointment that neither the Obama administration nor Congress had supported him.

Bill Bullard
“Dudley Butler was appointed as the administrator of GIPSA to restore competition to our U.S. livestock markets that, through decades of neglect, have been all but captured by a handful of corporate meatpackers,” Bullard said. “His monumental and historic job was to reverse the ongoing and alarming exodus of independent livestock producers from our rural landscape -- an exodus that is causing the hollowing out of rural America.”

“Mr. Butler did exactly what he was appointed to do by proposing a rule that would have restricted the corporate meatpackers’ ability to exercise abusive market power against independent producers,” Bullard continued.

“However, the political pushback by the corporate meatpackers proved too great and the administration that appointed Mr. Butler lost its resolve to continue supporting the key provisions in the proposed rule that would have actually restored competition. Those key provisions are now dead.

“R-CALF USA greatly appreciates Mr. Butler’s historic effort and is deeply disappointed that neither the administration nor Congress had the fortitude or integrity to stand behind him when the corporate meatpackers turned up the heat,” Bullard said.

“We respect Mr. Butler’s decision to step down as we would not expect anyone whose hands have been tied to pursue an exercise in futility. The urgent need to restore competition to our shrinking livestock markets remains and R-CALF USA will continue fighting with the same level of commitment and integrity that Mr. Butler exhibited when he embarked on his pro-competition agenda. Mr. Butler established a strong foundation for restoring competition and we intend to keep building upon that foundation until the corporate meatpackers’ abusive control over our industry is eliminated.”

In signals of the complicated politics surrounding President Barack Obama’s decision to reject the application for construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline through Nebraska, the Obama-Biden campaign sent supporters an email promoting the decision, while Heidi Heidtkamp, the Democratic candidate to replace retiring Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., sent Obama a letter asking him to reverse the decision. Read More...

As the Agriculture Department today a proposed some changes in chicken and turkey inspection, the chicken industry expressed enthusiasm for the plan while some consumer groups were critical of it. Read More...

Consumer and farm groups continue to expressed concerns about a reorganization that would move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Interior Department, move the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative into a new agency that would replace the Commerce Department, and possibly consolidate the food safety agencies in the future. Read More...

As the Farm Service Agency released a schedule of dates for hearings on plans to close county offices around the country, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent Agriculture Secretary Vilsack a letter this week asking him to provide a rationale for the closure of offices in Ohio and an assurance that farmers would continue to get the same level of service. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA has approved a conditional commitment for a $25 million guaranteed loan to build a biorefinery plant in Blairstown, Iowa, with funding support from USDA's Biorefinery Assistance Program. Read More...

FFA, formerly Future Farmers of America, has risen to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s challenge to tell him what’s needed in the next farm bill, as he encourages 100,000 young people to become farmers in the next few years. Read More...

J. Dudley Butler, the controversial administrator of the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration, announced today that he would resign. Read More...

In a sign that mayors are going to get involved in the setting of nutrition policy in the farm bill, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has established a food policy task force headed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Read More...

More than three quarters of American voters oppose cutting food stamps as a way to reduce government spending, according to new poll data released today by the Food Research and Action Center. Read More...

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., announced today that he and a bipartisan group of 23 other senators from rural states have called on the Federal Communications Commission to address excessive substandard phone service in North Dakota and throughout the most rural regions of the country. Read More...

In an act that could have implications for the rural economy, President Barack Obama today signed an executive order and announced new initiatives to increase travel and tourism in the United States. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has asked an array of financial stakeholders, market participants and consumer advocacy groups to provide insight and recommendations on how to create stronger, safer markets, and to provide customers with greater protections in the wake of the MF Global bankruptcy. Read More...

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Two key agricultural lobbyists said here today they believe Congress will make a serious effort to write the farm bill this year and have a chance of succeeding because the fiscal pressures will be worse in 2013 than in 2012. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $308 million in disaster assistance to help farmers, landowners, communities and others recover and rebuild after flooding, drought, tornadoes and other natural disasters in 33 states and Puerto Rico. Read More...

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Teen television actor Reed Alexander and chef Lorena Garcia are collaborating with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to create healthier school meal recipes, while the Wasserman Foundation has pledged to back athletes’ visits to schools, the William J. Clinton Foundation has announced. Read More...

Two groups critical of industrial agriculture, the ETC Group and the Global Development and Environment Institute, issued reports today detailing their views. Read More...

Ed Barron, who has been a partner in the lobbying and consulting firm of Russell & Barron, has left to join the government affairs practice in the Washington office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Read More...

The United Nations today appointed Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome, as the next executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, and President Barack Obama and a host of Cabinet officials praised the appointment. Read More...

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Dairy product sales will grow faster than other foods in developing countries in the coming years, a key PepsiCo Inc. executive said here this week, while other experts said success in markets such as India and China will require more sensitivity to other countries’ consumer and business cultures. Read More...

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Opportunities lie in countries with growing populations and growing incomes that will not be able to supply all their own food, but only if suppliers learn how to do business there, those attending the Dairy Forum heard. Read More...

In a series of events that could be considered related to President Barack Obama’s campaign for re-election, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack traveled to Chicago on Monday to talk civil rights and promote biofuels, and continued on to St. Paul today to unveil a conservation program while the USDA released a report on rural development. Read More...

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., unveiled his own commodity title Monday at events in North Dakota, his office said in a news release. Read More...

President Barack Obama’s proposal, announced today, to reorganize six agencies that promote business and trade would not have an immediate impact on agriculture, but it could have an impact down the line on trade agencies and on food safety inspections if Congress grants Obama “consolidation authority.” Read More...

U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director General Jose Graziano da Silva has announced an international scientific symposium on food and nutrition security information next week in Rome. Read More...

The House Agriculture Committee will hold a markup session on January 25 on legislation to amend Title VII of the Dodd-Frank financial services reform act. Read More...

HONOLULU — U.S. Navy boats taking tourists to visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor are powered by biodiesel, and if Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Navy officials are right, this is the beginning of the U.S. military’s shift from petroleum to biofuels. Read More...

The White House, responding to an online petition on its "We The People" page, has declined to support a move to allow interstate sales of unpasteurized milk, Obama Foodorama has reported. Read More...

HONOLULU — For Tom Vilsack, visiting Pearl Harbor was about more than fulfilling his duty as secretary of Agriculture. The biodiesel-powered boat on which Vilsack toured the Pearl Harbor memorial was named for his maternal great uncle, Cassin Young, who served with great distinction on Dec. 7, 1941, and was awarded the Medal of Honor. Read More...

Dale Moore, a former chief of staff to four Agriculture secretaries, has become deputy executive director for public policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation. Read More...

HONOLULU — Delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation convention here ended their support for the $5 billion annual direct payments program that crop farmers get whether prices are high or low on Tuesday, but the new policy they passed reflected continued differences between regions and commodities that make it difficult for the nation’s largest general farm group to develop policy on a new farm bill. Read More...

HONOLULU — The Agriculture Department will close 259 offices, facilities and laboratories across the country, including 131 Farm Service Agency offices in 32 states, as well as seven foreign offices as part of a plan to streamline operations and cut costs, Agricutlure Secretary Tom Vilsack said here Monday in a speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Read More...

HONOLULU — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman may not agree on all the issues facing agriculture, but the two men made the same points on farm bill spending and its schedule here on Sunday.
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HONOLULU — In a sign of the continuing splits among farm groups over the crop program in the next farm bill, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman appealed to the delegates at the convention here to give him and the board “clear direction” in telling Congress what Farm Bureau members want in the next bill. Read More...

United Nations World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran announced today she will leave her post when her term expires in April, while Jose Graziano da Silva, the new director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, announced that eradication of world hunger will be the goal of his three-and-a-half year term, rather than the previous U.N. goal of halving hunger by 2015. Read More...