U.S. Senate Agriculture chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is spearheading a measure aimed at improving USDA enforcement under the federal Packers and Stockyards and Agricultural Fair Practices Acts, according to a report by Farm Week .

In Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, Harkin charged USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) with “widespread inaction, efforts to block investigations of unfair and anti-competitive conduct, and even efforts to cook the books to give the appearance of actual enforcement,” based on a 2006 report from USDA's inspector general.

A Senate agriculture aide related additional concerns about GIPSA's congressionally mandated February Livestock and Meat Marketing Study, which based its conclusion that the hog industry was “unlikely to emulate the industrialization of the poultry sector” on surveys of a mere 229 pork producers.

Harkin's recently introduced Competitive and Fair Agricultural Markets Act would establish a new special counsel appointed by the president charged solely with investigating and prosecuting violations on agriculture competition matters.

The special counsel would serve as a liaison between the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The senator also proposes Justice Department evaluation of the producer impacts of proposed agriculture mergers.