From Dean Henderson
In a move that was long overdue, on November 7th President Trump ordered the Department of Justice to launch an antitrust investigation into what Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) called the “meatpacking oligopoly”.
Four giant multinational corporations have come to control the vast majority of beef processing in the US. They are Brazilian firm JBS, Cargill, Brazilian-owned National Beef and Tyson Foods.
According to Farm Action, ranchers have gone from earning 70 cents of every beef dollar in 1970 to earning only 37 cents today. Meanwhile the Big Four packers have gone from controlling 36% of the market in 1980 to processing 85% of all cattle today.
A statement issued from the White House read,
“For too long, a handful of giant meat packers have squeezed America’s cattle producers, shrunk herds, and jacked up prices at the grocery store. By examining whether these companies have violated antitrust laws through coordinated pricing or capacity restrictions, this investigation will root out any illegal collusion, restore fair competition, and protect our food security…Two of these companies, including the largest meat packer in the world, are either foreign-owned or have significant foreign ownership and control.”
Things are not much better for swine and poultry producers. Four corporations (JBS, Tyson, Hormel and WH Group) control 70% of US hog processing, while four (Tyson, JBS, Wayne Sanderson and Perdue Farms) also control 60% of poultry processing.
The Brazilian JBS is owned by the Batista brothers. Earlier this year they donated a record $5 million to Trump’s inaugural committee while doubling their PAC spending. This year also saw JBS listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which will only increase their access to capital and further consolidate their growing market share.
Cargill is a private corporation owned by the Minneapolis-based Cargill and MacMillan families. They control 50% of the global grain trade and own more Mississippi River ports and cargo ships than any other corporation. They also monopolize the trade in Brazilian orange juice, Moroccan sulphur, Filipino rice and the global egg and fertilizer industries just to name a few.
Tyson Foods is an Arkansas company which purchased Iowa Beef Packers in 2001 to become one of the Big Four beef processors. Their control over pork and poultry processing increased under AR Gov. and US President Bill Clinton, whose political career was heavily funded by Don Tyson and Winthrop Rockefeller’s International Paper. Their brands include Hillshire Farms, Ballpark, Sara Lee and Bryan.
Kansas City-based National Beef is owned by another Brazilian multinational called Marfrig. They bought Farmland Industries in 1992 and are run by the powerful dos Santos family. They worked closely with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) to create PlantPlus foods. ADM is in turn tied to the Brazilian/Swiss Bunge and Born families. Bunge is one of the top four grain traders in the world.
WH Group is based in Hong Kong and is the largest pork producer and processor in the world. They own Smithfield Foods in the US and were a pioneer in funding inhumane hog confinement systems that now dot the US landscape. Despite myths that Smithfield is “Chinese-owned”, it was Goldman Sachs that funded is meteoric rise. As of 2013 Goldman Sachs still held a controlling 5.2% share.
Much of the inflation in the US economy can be attributed to concentration of power within nearly every industry. The era of deregulation ushered in by President Ronald Reagan must be reversed. Cartels must be broken up using antitrust laws. And there is no better place to start than the food processing industry.
Dean Henderson is the author of seven books, including, Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf, Illuminati Agenda 21, Nephilim Crown 5G Apocalypse and Royal Bloodline Wetiko & The Great Remembering. Subscribe free to his Left Hook column at deanhenderson.substack.com
Image by congerdesign from Pixabay
