Photo courtesy of iStock. Justice Department Challenges Information-Sharing Scheme Between Meat Processors. Antitrust enforcers at the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued a data company, Agri Stats, for allegedly helping pork, chicken, and turkey processors raise prices. Agri Stats collects and shares detailed data on meat companies’ prices, wages, production levels, and profit margins. Processors allegedly…

Farmers Are Fed Up: USDA Secretary Reinforces Corporate Control of Our Food System September 28, 2023 Secretary Vilsack Says He Doesn’t Listen to His Critics — Maybe He Should POLITICO reporter Marcia Brown recently interviewed USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack on the agency’s efforts to promote competition in the agriculture industry — a topic that Farm…

Farm and Food File for the week beginning Oct. 1, 2023 Alan Guebert Beyond Meat, Inc., founded in 2009, has had almost 15 years to build a product line-up that is–as its name claims–beyond meat and, by some business metrics, it has. After all, the company, whose market capitalization was pegged at $1.3 billion when…

News | Sep 22, 2023 Carrie Stadheim  cstadheim@tsln-fre.com *The Strengthening Antitrust Enforcement for Meatpacking Act would: Amend the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 to establish specific thresholds for market concentration, allowing federal antitrust authorities to more effectively prohibit or unwind acquisitions that concentrate the meatpacking sector. Deter further meatpacking concentration by disincentivizing entrenched meatpacking interests from…

September 25, 2023 Big Beef Is Covering Its Tail As more voices join the call to reform corrupt checkoff programs, the beneficiaries of checkoff funding are scrambling to protect their slush fund.  The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) — the primary contractor for the beef checkoff — gets 70% of its funding from checkoff fees…

Bob Benenson Sep 26, 2023 Straight Talk on Fixing the Food System Greg Gunthorp, a leader in regenerative livestock production at Gunthorp Farms in northeast Indiana, spoke out powerfully on the need to support small farms during a panel discussion at the Farm Aid Festival in Noblesville, Indiana on September 23. Photo by Bob Benenson….

26 September, 2023 11:50 Small farmers and anti-monopoly groups say the Agriculture Department’s policy changes aren’t aggressive enough to restore the ranks of America’s smaller farms. Tom Vilsack blames past government ag policy for incentivizing farms to grow ever bigger, at the expense of fair competition and environmental health, such as water and soil quality….

USDA publishes 2020 dairy checkoff report, two others still pending By Marcia Brown| 09/25/2023 01:04 PM EDT The Agriculture Department on Friday submitted a required report to Congress on its dairy marketing and research program — more than two years after it was due. And USDA still owes Congress two more reports detailing how it…

U.S. senator introduces new meatpacking antitrust bill By Chris Scott on 9/19/2023 New legislation designed to “break up giant meatpacking and poultry monopolies” operating in the United States is being proposed by a U.S. senator from Missouri whose state recently was scheduled to lose more than 2,000 poultry plant jobs. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said…

September 13, 2023 Mayor Johnson Announces The Exploration Of A Municipally Owned Grocery Store Exploring a municipally owned grocery store is part of the Johnson administration’s goal of promoting food equity and accessibility for all Chicagoans. Mayor’s Press Office 312.744.3334 Download this Press Release CHICAGO — Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a partnership with the…