Upper Midwesterners are used to seeing Democratic Senator Tina Smith and uber-Republican Governor Kristi Noem go after the same targets, but that's the state of America's beef processing industry in 2021.
From the Minnesota Reformer's Ricardo Lopez, Sen. Tina Smith signs on to letter requesting DOJ antitrust investigation into beef processing industry:
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith has signed on to a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate whether four large beef processors have a monopoly on meat processing that some members of Congress say is leading to high retail beef prices.
Led by South Dakota Republican Sen. Michael Rounds, the bipartisan effort includes two dozen U.S. senators and representatives, who want Attorney General Merrick Garland to review whether anticompetitive practices in the industry are hurting consumers and ranchers who say they are being paid low prices for their cattle.
“From our perspective, the anticompetitive practices occurring in the industry today are unambiguous and either our antitrust laws are not being enforced or they are not capable of addressing the apparent oligopoly that so plainly exists,” reads the letter, dated May 27. “This is where we need to work together.”
Minnesota ranks tenth in its production of beef, making $2 billion in annual sales, according to Minnesota Department of Agriculture figures.
The letter is expected to be sent to the Justice Department next week.
Bloomberg News last June reported that the Justice Department had already issued subpoenas to the four meatpacking companies: Tyson Foods Inc., JBS SA, Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. and National Beef Inc. Altogether, the four companies control more than 80% of the U.S. beef processing market.
Messages seeking requests for comments from the four companies were not immediately returned Friday.
In February, executives at Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. pleaded guilty and were sentenced to pay $107 million in fines after being charged with price fixing. The plea agreement says that from 2012 to 2017, the company had conspired to suppress and eliminate competition for sales of broiler chicken products in the U.S.
Here in South Dakota, Pierre's Dakota Radio Group (DRG) News' Jody Heemstra reports in Governors ask US DOJ to continue investigation into anti-competitive practices in the meatpacking industry:
Six governors from cattle states have written a letter to the United States Department of Justice, asking them to continue their investigation into anti-competitive practices in the meatpacking industry.
The DOJ had originally sent investigative demands to the nation’s four largest meatpackers in May 2020.
“Perhaps no person embodies the independent and untamable spirit of the United States better than the cattle producer,” wrote the governors. “But this way of life is under threat. Decades of consolidation in meatpacking has significantly limited the options that producers have to market their cattle and has created a situation where one segment of the beef industry has near total control over the entire market.”
The governors highlighted the threat to consumers as prices of meat at the grocery store continue to rise, all while beef producers are struggling to make ends meet.
“The consistently high prices realized on the boxed beef side are not being reflected on the producer side, forcing consumers to pay a premium for beef while threatening many of our producers with the loss of their business,” wrote the governors.
Signing the letter were Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
You can read the governors’ letter here.
Let's hope the Department of Justice turns up the heat. Pressure doesn't get more bipartisan than this.
Photo: Creative Commons photo via Pxhere.com, via the Minnesota Reformer's Sen. Tina Smith signs on to letter requesting DOJ antitrust investigation into beef processing industry.
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