The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday confirmed an active antitrust investigation into the country’s largest beef processors, with prosecutors having reviewed more than three million documents as they examine whether concentration in U.S. cattle and beef markets has helped drive up grocery prices.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking at a White House news conference, said multiple plant closures, the current market structure, and high concentration in the industry all point to potentially anti-competitive activity, though he declined to name specific companies. Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS USA, and National Beef Packing Company together slaughter roughly 85% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle.
Blanche urged ranchers, purchasers, processors, and other industry insiders to report price-fixing, bid-rigging, market allocation, and procurement fraud through the DOJ’s whistleblower program, which can pay informants 15% to 30% of any criminal recovery exceeding $1 million.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins tied the probe to a broader food-security concern, noting that the U.S. cattle herd stood at 86.2 million head as of January 1 — “the lowest since the 1950s.” Rollins said the country has lost more than 17% of its cattle ranchers over the past decade, including more than 100,000 ranches in total. “Growing the herd size is an immediate problem in need of solutions, and we’ve already begun implementing across the government and into the states how we’re going to solve...
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