antitrust

Tyson Foods recently announced it will be closing a Virginia processing plant in May.  The two-month notice given to its chicken suppliers has raised concerns among farmers and legal experts about Tyson’s compliance with antitrust regulations.  Those re...

Farmers and ranchers can now anonymously report potentially unfair and anti-competitive practices in the livestock and poultry sectors. The USDA and the Justice Department launched an online tool late last week to make it easier for farmers to file those reports ...

Recently, senators Mike Rounds, Republican from South Dakota, and Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding the state of the U.S. meatpacking industry. They asked him to enforce or examine America’s antitrust laws to restore fairness in the marketplace for cattle producers and are asking their colleagues in both the House and Senate to

As the Ag community moves past the struggles and difficulties of 2020, the question of what the future holds in store becomes more and more important. Tom Sharp, President of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said one of the chief issues the livestock industry will want addressed in 2021 and further down the road, the monopolistic actions by the few packing companies that remain. He ... Read

A U.S. District Court in Minnesota has dismissed an anti-trust lawsuit against meatpackers like Tyson Foods, JBS, the National Beef Packing Company, and Cargill. R-CALF led several plaintiffs in filing the lawsuit. Chief Judge John Tunheim left open the opportunity for plaintiffs to amend their complaint ...

Last week, USDA released an update on its investigation of cattle markets. American Farm Bureau Federation Congressional Relations Director Scott Bennett said the report is looking at market price disparities. “In the report, USDA outlines exactly what has happened in the volatile cattle markets since the Holcomb fire in August of 2019, and the volatilities due to COVID-19. In a ...

On Wednesday, the USDA released a report on its ongoing boxed beef and fed cattle price spread investigation. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the closure of the Tyson beef packing plant following a fire at the facility in Holcomb, Kansas, and the COVID-19 pandemic, “clearly disrupted the markets and processing systems responsible for the production and sale of U.S. be ...

The Justice Department is formally demanding information from the four biggest meatpackers in the United States, over potential antitrust violations. According to Bloomberg, the DOJ’s antitrust division sent civil investigative demands, which are akin to subpoenas, to the companies…and is talking with state attorneys general about the probe after growing calls for an in-depth investigation. Cur

Dean Foods, one of America’s largest dairy companies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.  A New Food Economy report says that leaves a lot of dairy producers up in the air about where they’ll be selling their milk in the future. The timing of t...

A broad coalition of 219 farm, food, rural, faith, and consumer advocacy organizations delivered a letter last week to Congress endorsing food and agribusiness merger moratorium bills introduced in both chambers. The Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2019 would put a moratorium in place on large agriculture, food and beverage manufacturing, and grocery retail merg