Comment on Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments

Legal Impact for Chickens submitted a public comment to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), asking the agency to make chicken-meat companies warn their potential new farmers about bird-welfare issues.

No one wants to see suffering. And LIC believes that farmers deserve to know what they’re getting into when they sign up to grow birds for a large company.

LIC submitted its comment on August 9, 2022, in response to USDA’s proposed regulation on Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments. USDA proposed this new rule with the goal of helping chicken contract growers—by leveling the information playing field between these individual growers and the large poultry companies that hire them.

In our comment, LIC explained:

[M]any growers are currently forced to witness animal suffering which the growers didn’t expect upon entering into their contract. Health-and-welfare information will help a prospective grower decide whether he or she feels comfortable with the way the dealer will ultimately require him or her to treat chickens. Such information will also help a prospective grower decide whether he or she feels comfortable with the likely state of the animals he or she will ultimately be seeing, smelling, and caring for every day.

On November 8, 2023, USDA announced its final rule. Unfortunately, USDA rejected LIC’s comments.

USDA acknowledged that “a live poultry dealer’s compliance with animal welfare-related laws could be relevant to the financial risks of the poultry growing.” Nonetheless, AMS declined to require animal-welfare disclosures, instead stating that “AMS is not presently aware of [ ] a pattern or practice of intentional or reckless noncompliance with animal welfare standards.”

Legal Impact for Chickens will continue fighting for transparency around animal welfare. And we encourage any poultry growers who have concerns about this topic to reach out.