U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) recently led a bipartisan, bicameral contingent of lawmakers in calling on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the nation’s meatpacking industry for antitrust violations.
“The Justice Department needs to take a serious look into the meatpacking industry, and if they cannot, Congress needs to pass reforms that protect a fair and open cattle market,” Sen. Rounds said.
For far too long, the senator explained, America’s independent cattle producers have been forced out of the business while meatpackers continue to profit at the expense of consumers. “This cannot continue,” said Sen. Rounds. “We will continue to raise awareness about this issue and take steps to protect the domestic supply of live cattle that is critical to America’s economic and national security.”
Toward that goal, Sen. Rounds and 27 of his colleagues sent a June 1 letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting that the DOJ take decisive action in examining the behavior of the four large meatpacking companies — two of which are foreign-owned — that control over 80 percent of the meat processing market.
“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,” the lawmakers wrote. “The time has come for the government to determine whether the stranglehold large meatpackers have over the beef processing market violate our antitrust laws and principles of fair competition.”
Among the congressional members who joined Sen. Rounds in signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Joni Ernst (R-IA), as well as U.S. Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY), Andy Barr (R-KY), and Tina Smith (D-MN).
“We’ve seen tremendous grassroots support from across the ideological spectrum and across the nation for addressing meatpacker concentration issues,” Rep. Rounds said. “Our letter to the attorney general is just one step in our effort to restore competition in the marketplace for cattlemen and make certain consumers are offered high-quality beef at an affordable price.”
In their letter, the lawmakers wrote that without congressional action, current U.S. policies will be identified as the cause for the demise of the American rancher and consumers will be forced to pay a higher price for a much lower quality product.
“The time has come to either enforce or examine our antitrust laws to restore fairness to the marketplace,” they wrote. “American producers and consumers depend on us.”