[image: Tyson Foods Feature photo] <https://www.mintpressnews.com/covid-19-food-supply-big-ag-taking-farmers-to-slaughter/267919/> LATE STAGE CAPITALISM COVID-19 is Laying Bare How Big Ag is Taking America’s Small Farmers to Slaughter <https://www.mintpressnews.com/covid-19-food-supply-big-ag-taking-farmers-to-slaughter/267919/>
As the door for greater consolidation across industries opens wider, entrenched transnational food interests are feeling the heat from American farmers and ranchers to curb their monopolistic dreams. by Raul Diego <https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/raul-diego/> May 27th, 2020 By Raul Diego <https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/raul-diego/> https://www.mintpressnews.com/covid-19-food-supply-big-ag-taking-farmers-to-slaughter/267919/ There is a bottleneck in the nation’s food supply chain. Specifically in the meatpacking operations of the country’s “big four”: Tyson Foods, National Beef, Cargill, and Brazilian giant JBS – the world’s largest processor of beef and pork products. The logjam has been exacerbated by a slew of coronavirus outbreaks <https://cbs2iowa.com/news/your-question-your-answer/state-officials-announce-two-more-meatpacking-plant-outbreaks-in-northwest-iowa> in Iowa meatpacking plants and several other plants across the United States, but the real problem seems to lie with big ag’s penchant for unfair antitrust practices and monopolistic designs. In a protracted battle against the powerful industry that dates back a hundred years <https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/25/meatpackers-prices-coronavirus-antitrust-275093>, the latest salvo emerged out of Kentucky last week when that state’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Ryan Quarles and Attorney General Daniel Cameron called <https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2020/05/19/569251.htm> for the Justice Department to “undertake and investigation into the potentially illegal anticompetitive practices by some meatpackers in the cattle industry.” Their jointly issued letter to the DOJ was motivated by grievances from Kentucky cattle farmers who claim the price they are being paid for their animals has dropped between 30 and 40 percent as the pandemic-induced shortfalls in production send beef prices sky-high. Some economists, like Kansas State University’s Ted Schroeder, believe the current problem is the logical result of supply and demand forces, saying that there is “plenty of cattle <https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/25/meatpackers-prices-coronavirus-antitrust-275093>” to go around and that challenges lie in getting them “through the system.” This position is, of course, shared by the companies that are under fire, like Tyson Foods, which published an open letter <https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/tyson-ad/86b9290d-115b-4628-ad80-0e679dcd2669/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2> in the *Washington Post* and the *New York Times* back in April, warning that the shuttering of production facilities due to COVID-19 would severely impair the ability of farmers to sell their livestock. *Click on the link for the rest.* -- If you appreciate News From Underground, please consider making a donation — either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription: http://markcrispinmiller.com/support/ Thank you for your support. Ways to unsubscribe: 1) send a blank email to [email protected] PLEASE NOTE: you must unsubscribe using the SAME email with which you subscribed 2) go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "News From Underground" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/newsfromunderground/CAGxB6W_sX_F%2Ba%3DAGY5fPwQ4wMwWV%3DQ6QotSdsFApVUOAux2DUQ%40mail.gmail.com.
