The National Farmers Union (NFU) and more than 200 organizations have written the leadership of the House and Senate Ag and Judiciary Committees urging them to make the issues of agricultural competition and market concentration a top priority in the 2007 farm bill. The groups support captive supply reform, a ban on packer-owned livestock, fairness standards for ag contracts, and mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL).

Some of the groups joining NFU are American Corn Growers Association, Center for Rural Affairs, Family Farm Defenders, Farm Aid, Humane Society of the U.S., National Catholic Rural Life Conference, National Farmers Organization, and R-CALF.
-- P. Scott Shearer, Washington, D.C., correspondent