Butler named GIPSA administrator

Butler named GIPSA administrator    U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that J. Dudley Butler will serve as administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.
   GIPSA facilitates the marketing of livestock, poultry, meat, cereals, oilseeds and related agricultural products, and promotes fair and competitive trading practices for the overall benefit of consumers and American agriculture. The agency is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Marketing and Regulatory Programs.
   Butler has been an attorney in private practice for more than 30 years and is a certified mediator and arbitrator. He’s also been involved in cattle, timber and farming operations, and in the 1980s and 1990s, owned cattle in Wyoming and traded cattle in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and Utah.
   In addition, Butler has testified before Congress on matters involving agriculture and arbitration and served on a mandatory price reporting task force that led to the congressional passage of the Mandatory Price Reporting law.