Video Shows How US Meat Industry Colludes to Boost Prices by Jake Johnson
August 21, 2024
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) A former grocery executive told a progressive media outlet in a video released Tuesday that "people fucking need to go to jail" over a long-running scheme in which dominant U.S. meat industry players have used information provided by a little-known data analytics company to increase prices and pad their bottom lines.
"This is probably one of the top five food scandals of the 21st Century, and we can't underplay it," said Errol Schweizer, the former vice president of Whole Foods' grocery division. "People need to go to jail for this shit."
Schweizer's comments come at the start of a nine-minute video produced by More Perfect Union, which tells the story of how Indiana-based Agri Stats, the seemingly bland data firm, "built a network used by the nation's largest meat companies," including Tyson Foods, Hormel, and Cargill.
"Inside that network, America's meat barons share secret data," says More Perfect Union's Eric Gardner, the video's narrator. "It's alleged that Agri Stats organizes and then launders that information across the industry. Companies weaponize it, restricting output, manipulating the market, ultimately raising your prices."
U.S. Food Insecurity Rate Rose to 13.5% in 2023 as Government Benefits Declined and Food Prices Soared by Michael Long and Laura Gonçalves
September 5, 2024
Introduction:
(The Conversation) The official U.S. food insecurity rate rose to 13.5% in 2023 from 12.8% in 2022, according to data the U.S. Department of Agriculture released on Sept. 4, 2024. That means more than 1 in 8 Americans – about 47 million people – couldn’t get enough food for themselves or their families at least some of the time.
This is a significant increase from a recent low of 10.2% in 2021. Food insecurity grew in the two years that followed due to a sharp decline in government benefits, including money for groceries from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the program that pays for students to get lunch and breakfast for free at school.
Higher food prices, largely driven by rapid inflation, also played a big role, as did elevated housing costs.
We are sociologists who study food insecurity. We’re concerned about the growing scale of this problem, which can happen in many ways, in a country where there’s enough food for everyone living here – and about 40% of the food produced goes to waste.
What’s food insecurity?
If you can’t afford to refill the fridge, find keeping a balanced diet too expensive, eat too-small portions, skip meals altogether, experience the physical sensation of hunger or lose weight solely due to lacking the money to put food on the table, you’re experiencing food insecurity.
America’s Dairy Farms are Disappearing, Down 95% Since the 1970s − Milk Price Rules are One Reason Why by Liz Eckelkamp
September 16, 2024
Introduction:
(The Conversation) Milton Orr looked across the rolling hills in northeast Tennessee. “I remember when we had over 1,000 dairy farms in this county. Now we have less than 40,” Orr, an agriculture adviser for Greene County, Tennessee, told me with a tinge of sadness.
That was six years ago. Today, only 14 dairy farms remain in Greene County, and there are only 125 dairy farms in all of Tennessee. Across the country, the dairy industry is seeing the same trend: In 1970, over 648,000 U.S. dairy farms milked cattle. By 2022, only 24,470 dairy farms were in operation.
While the number of dairy farms has fallen, the average herd size – the number of cows per farm – has been rising. Today, more than 60% of all milk production occurs on farms with more than 2,500 cows.
This massive consolidation in dairy farming has an impact on rural communities. It also makes it more difficult for consumers to know where their food comes from and how it’s produced.
Don’t Blame Biden for Inflation. Blame the Climate. by Ayurella Horn-Muller
December 5, 2024
Extract:
(Grist) Food prices are another area where the inflationary pressure of warming has become obvious. A drought that engulfed the Mississippi River system in 2022 severely disrupted the transportation of crops used for cattle feed, increasing shipping and commodity costs for livestock producers. Those added costs were likely absorbed by consumers buying meat and dairy products. Grain prices jumped around the same time because drought-induced supply shortages and high energy prices pushed up the costs of fertilizer, transportation, and agricultural production. Not long after, lettuce prices soared amid shortages that followed flooding across California, and the price of orange juice skyrocketed after drought and a hurricane hit major production regions.
Though overall inflation has cooled considerably since then, the economic pressures extreme weather places on food costs persist. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported that weather disruptions drove global food prices to an 18-month high in October. In fact, cocoa prices surged almost 40 percent this year because of supply shortages wrought by drier conditions in West and Central Africa, where about three-quarters of the world’s cocoa is cultivated. This can not only impact the price tag of chocolate, but also health supplements, cosmetics, and fragrances, among other goods that rely on cocoa beans.
“What we have seen, especially this year, is this massive price spike,” due to abnormal weather patterns, said Rodrigo Cárcamo-Díaz, a senior economist at U.N. Trade and Development.
But the impact on consumers “goes beyond” the Consumer Price Indicator, which is the most widely used measure of inflation, said Cárcamo-Díaz. His point is simple: Lower-income households are most affected by supply shocks that inflate the price of goods as increasingly volatile weather makes prices more volatile, straining households with tighter budgets because it can take time for wages to catch up to steeper costs of living.
Rising prices are expected to become even more of an issue as temperatures climb and extreme weather becomes more frequent and severe.
A Scandalous Reason Meat Prices Have Skyrocketed by Miranda Lipton
January February Issue of Mother Jones
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) The bacon in your BLT now costs nearly twice as much as it did 15 years ago, but inflation is only part of the reason. Broadly speaking, food and drink prices only grew by about 50 percent during that time. So, what’s up with the meat?
The answer may have to do with Agri Stats, a small data venture based in Indiana. In 2023, the Department of Justice, backed by a coalition of state attorneys general, sued the company, accusing it of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by enabling the exchange of anticompetitive information, leading to artificially high meat prices. (Agri Stats has denied wrongdoing.)
The exchange works like this: For two decades, Agri Stats has been collecting metrics from the country’s largest meat processors on all kinds of things—pork and chicken-thigh inventories, production speeds, meatpacking wages. It analyzes the intel and creates reports that it distributes back to its members—dominant players that can afford to pay millions for a subscription—which use the info to set prices. Agri Stats had been running this exchange within Federal Trade Commission antitrust “safety zones” guidelines that permitted “reasonable” sharing of information between rivals in a given sector.
Those guidelines were rescinded in 2023, which opened the door for the DOJ to claim the information exchanges harm competition, in part because Agri Stats focuses on boosting the industry’s profitability—in some cases, it allegedly encouraged companies to restrict output, thereby reducing supply, and jack up their prices. (Agri Stats argues that it helps protein producers identify ways to keep production costs, and prices, low.)
Agri Stats isn’t solely to blame, of course. Just four conglomerates—JBS Foods, Tyson Foods, Cargill, and Marfrig—control up to 85 percent of the meat industry’s supply chain. For many years, Agri Stats’ member firms accounted for more than 90 percent of broiler chicken, 80 percent of pork, and 90 percent of turkey sold in the United States. As long as the giants all raised their prices, the DOJ argues, there was little competitive risk in doing so.
Coffee prices surge to record highs above $3.60 per lb
Source: Reuters
January 29, 2025 2:59 PM EST Updated 2 hours ago
NEW YORK, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Global arabica coffee prices hit record highs above $3.60 per lb on Wednesday as Brazil, by far the world's largest producer, has few beans left to sell and as worries over its upcoming harvest persist.
Dealers said 70%-80% of Brazil's current arabica harvest has been sold and new trades are slow. Brazil produces nearly half the world's arabica beans, a high-end variety typically used in roast and ground blends. The country's recent weather has been more favorable after a severe drought last year. Still, the upcoming crop will be 4.4% smaller than the previous, according to Brazilian food supply agency Conab.
"Global coffee supplies remain limited. Vietnam is progressing slowly with sales of its robusta crop. The arabica harvested in Central America and Colombia is taking longer to get to the market, and Brazilian farmers don't show much interest in selling more," said broker HedgePoint Global Markets on Wednesday. Arabica coffee futures on the ICE exchange , a contract used globally to price physical coffee trades, hit a record high of $3.6945 per lb earlier, bringing gains for the year up nearly 15%. The contract later closed up 2.5% at $3.6655 per lb.
Robusta coffee , a generally cheaper variety used mostly to make instant coffee, rose 0.9% at $5,609 a metric ton. Coffee exports from India, the world's fifth largest robusta producer, are expected to decline more than 10% in 2025 due to lower production and reduced carry-forward stocks from last season's crop. Dealers said farmers in both India and Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, are holding back sales in anticipation of further price gains and that in Brazil, some 80-90% of the current harvest has been sold.
Consumers will find no relief from rising egg prices this year. That’s the most recent scenario from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) recent forecast on overall food costs. On Tuesday, the USDA’s Food Price Outlook summary report predicted all food prices will increase and “rise slightly faster than the historical average rate of growth.”
But it's egg prices that’s got everyone digging deeper into their wallets. On the retail level, the USDA report forecasts a 41% rise in egg prices this year. If that rate holds, that means eggs could cost nearly $7 a dozen based on January’s Consumer Price Index report price of nearly $5 a dozen.
Egg costs for consumers are 53% higher in January 2025 than in January 2024, surpassing previous peak prices in 2023 the USDA said in its forecast report. In January, retail egg prices increased by nearly 14% after jumping more than 8% from December 2024, based on January’s Consumer Price Index report.
Egg prices have been skyrocketing in recent months with most of the blame on the ongoing outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI) or bird flu. “Retail egg prices continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes due to an outbreak of HPAI that began in 2022,” the USDA report stated. “HPAI contributes to elevated egg prices by reducing egg-layer flocks and egg production.”
The Real Reason for Soaring Egg Prices? Gouging by the 'Rotten Egg Oligarchy' by Brett Wilkins
March 4, 2025
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) The nation's largest egg producers would have American consumers believe that avian flu and inflation are behind soaring prices, but a report published Tuesday shows corporate price gouging is the real culprit driving the record cost of the dietary staple.
The fourth installment of Food & Water Watch's (FWW) Economic Cost of Food Monopolies series—titled The Rotten Egg Oligarchy —reports that the average price of a dozen eggs in the United States hit an all-time high of $4.95 in January 2025. That's more than two-and-a-half times the average price from three years ago.
"While egg prices spiral out of reach, making eggs a luxury item, Big Ag is profiting hand over fist," FWW research director Amanda Starbuck said in a statement. "But make no mistake—today's high prices are built on a foundation of corporate price gouging. Our research shows how corporations use the worsening bird flu crisis to jack up egg prices, even as their own factory farms fuel the spread of disease."
FWW found that "egg prices were already rising before the current [avian flu] outbreak hit U.S. commercial poultry flocks in February 2022, and have never returned to pre-outbreak levels."
Furthermore, "egg price spikes hit regions that were bird flu-free until recently," the report states. "The U.S. Southeast remained free of bird flu in its table egg flocks until January 2025, and actually increased egg production in 2022 and 2023 over 2021 levels. Nevertheless, retail egg prices in the Southeast rose alongside January 2023's national price spikes."
Justice Department Opens Antitrust Probe Into Egg Price Spike by Kim Chipman, Josh Sisco and Leah Nylen
March 7, 2025
Introduction:
(Bloomberg) -- The US Justice Department has opened a preliminary probe into a recent surge in egg prices across the country, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
The investigation, which is being conducted by the department’s civil antitrust enforcers, focuses on whether companies including Cal-Maine Foods Inc. and Rose Acre Farms Inc. have colluded to boost prices or limit supply, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential probe.
A dozen large eggs in the Midwest cost an average of $8.41 wholesale as of Feb. 28, a record high and an increase of more than 200% from a year earlier, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The surge has hit consumers’ wallets and become a political talking point for President Donald Trump and his detractors amid the worst-ever bird flu outbreak in the US, leading to the death of more than 130 million birds since 2022. The spike in prices has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and industry watchdogs.
A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment. Its civil antitrust probe may end without any accusations of wrongdoing.
About a third of Americans stop buying eggs due to rising costs, study shows
As egg prices have reached record highs, about a third of American consumers have stopped buying them in response to the rising costs, a new study suggests.
According to research from Clarify Capital, 34% of Americans have stopped purchasing eggs as prices for the breakfast staple are becoming less affordable. On average, these consumers say they won’t begin buying eggs again until costs come down to $5 or less for a carton.
The report compared the average price of eggs across all US states, observing a significant jump in 2018, when the average was $1.49. In 2025, that figure is sitting at about $5.18.
The study found that nearly 95% of Americans have noticed the significant rise in egg prices, with shoppers reporting their perceived average as $7 a dozen. The average American said they would stop buying eggs when prices hit $8 a dozen.
US government slapping 21 percent tariff on most tomatoes from Mexico
Source: The Hill
04/14/25 8:39 PM ET
The United States government announced that it plans to slap a nearly 21 percent tariff on most tomatoes coming from Mexico in the summer, arguing the current agreement has not “protected” U.S.-based tomato growers from “unfairly priced Mexican imports.”
The Commerce Department said on Monday that it plans to withdraw from the 2019 trade agreement with Mexico and that an “antidumping duty order” will be instituted on July 14. “This action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace,” the Commerce Department said in a release on Monday.
During President Trump’s first White House term, the U.S. government struck an agreement with tomato producers from Mexico to prevent a possible 25 percent tariff on the commodity. The 2019 deal included enforcement provisions, including an inspection mechanism to bar low-quality tomatoes from being imported and establishing prices for various types of the commodity.
In early 2019, during President Trump’s first term in the White House, the U.S. government threatened to withdraw from the existing agreement and levy duties against Mexico after complaints from growers in Florida who argued that Mexico City is performing price suppression of the crop and, therefore taking advantage of Washington. Mexico, a major trading partner, is the U.S.’s largest importer of tomatoes, along with vegetables and fruits.
Trump ready to bail out farmers amid trade war squeeze, Rollins says
Source: Axios
6 hours ago
President Trump is prepared to bail out American farmers if the trade war continues squeezing commodity exports, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Sunday.
Why it matters: Exports of key commodities are plunging, particularly soybean and pork sales to China, threatening tens of billions of dollars in farm income.
What they're saying: "First of all, the prayer is that that doesn't need to happen — but secondly, if it does, for the short term, just as in Trump 1, we are preparing for that," Rollins told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Catch up quick: In Trump's first term, amid a smaller trade war with China, the government rolled out tens of billions of dollars in farm subsidies.
Those bailouts, collectively, ended up being so large that they almost equaled the tariff revenue generated.
Should America’s Farm Bill Serve Need… or Greed? by Jim Hightower
April 29, 2025
Introduction:
(Jim Hightower’s Lowdown) The federal budget is not only about money, but fundamentally about our country’s morality—our commitment to fairness, equality and unity.
Which brings me to, of all things, our nation’s Farm Bill. This sprawling piece of legislation, updated every five years, is intended to combine the interests of farmers with consumers, production with conservation, grassroots cultures with corporate systems… etc. It’s not easy. In fact, downright messy.
But now, with plutocratic ideologues and culture warriors dominating their caucus, Republican lawmakers have not even been able to produce an agreement among themselves, so the comprehensive farm bill America needs is a year overdue and no longer being pursued by the party in charge. Instead, the GOP’s ag committee chairman, Rep. Glenn Thompson, is jerry-rigging a stripped-down sham of a bill limited to the two spending priorities of MAGA Republicans:
One: Hand out many billions more of our taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize agribusiness giants and rich speculators who own the biggest farms, mainly because they’ll then keep funding and voting for Republicans.
Two: Whack America’s poorest families. Thompson is banking on the minginess of extremist Republicans who oppose the Ag Department’s hunger programs. Those programs help 40 million poverty-stricken Americans (including 1 in 5 children) afford the groceries they need.
Trump Says, “Groceries (Even Eggs!) are Down.” The Numbers Tell a Different Story. by Sky Chadde
May 7, 2025
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump centered on the increasing price of groceries to attack Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. If elected, Trump said he would “defeat inflation” and bring food prices down.
Trump has the same message now that he’s in office. In April, he posted on his Truth Social account, “groceries (even eggs!) are down.”
But food prices, including those of eggs, continue to rise.
Grocery prices have sharply increased since the 1950s, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and that trend has continued through the first three months of 2025.
Lately, food prices have even increased beyond the rate of inflation for all consumer items. However, in 2024, consumers experienced some relief — prices continued to rise, but not as fast as in previous years
Tomatoes Become Latest Flashpoint in U.S.-Mexico Trade Tensions by Mónica Cordero
May 28, 2025
Introduction:
(Investigate Midwest) Tomatoes, found in everything from tacos to soups, are suddenly at the center of a new cost concern, not because of crop failure, but because of tariffs. The Trump administration’s plan to impose steep levies on fresh Mexico-grown tomatoes, which supply most of the U.S. market, could drive up prices for restaurants, grocers, and families alike.
On April 14, the Commerce Department announced it would begin imposing a 20.91% tariff on most tomatoes imported from Mexico starting July 14. The decision ends a 2019 agreement that had suspended earlier trade penalties, with officials arguing the pact failed to protect American producers from a competition surge from low-cost Mexican tomatoes.
