ABOUT THE BARGAINING COUNCIL

Prior to 1995 Oregon perennial ryegrass seed growers had historically been “price takers,” having little influence on the price they received for the perennial ryegrass seed crop they grew under various seed production agreements for the Oregon seed dealers.

Congress passed the Capper-Volstead Act in 1922 to allow growers to form cooperatives and collectively pool their products to negotiate with buyers.
The Capper-Volstead Act, signed into law on February 18, 1922 by President Warren Harding, has been called the "Magna Carta" of cooperatives in the agriculture industry, and the act has played and continues to play a vital role in enabling producers to collaborate, while providing legal protection from antitrust laws.

The system of negotiating the price for members of the PRBA for the crop
years 1995 through 2000, was by negotiating with the individual seed dealers. Because of antitrust implications, grower Bargaining Associations had to negotiate with buyers individually — antitrust laws prevented more than one buyer jointly meeting together with growers to discuss prices — this became price collusion.

The only way around this situation was to have a state supervised price negotiation process. House Bill 3811, signed into law by the Governor on May 16, 2001, created the authority for this process in Oregon, but only for one segment of Oregon agriculture at this time -- proprietary perennial ryegrass being produced by members of the PRBA for the various seed dealers in Oregon. The law was later amended to included the species tall fescue and annual ryegrass in 2005.

HB 3811 allowed the grass seed dealers to elect a negotiating committee to meet with the PRBA, now the OGSBA, under the direct supervision of the Oregon Department of Agriculture, to negotiate seed prices for proprietary seed production meeting TournamenT® Quality Standards.
The first meeting of the Bargaining Council was on May 17, 2001. This
meeting was called by the Oregon Department of Agriculture resulting from legislation passed by the 2001 legislative session and signed by the Governor in May 2001.