Latest Stories — Food & Power

A New Threat to Small Meat Processors: Monopolized Waste Disposal.

A JBS-owned rendering company, MOPAC, canceled all services for independent meat processors on Dec. 1. Without a place for their waste, small packers and the farms they serve are going under.

The Monopolies Behind Your Thanksgiving Dinner

One company sells 80% of all canned pumpkin, one cooperative sells 70% of all cranberry sauce, and two companies sell 60% of all carrots. That’s not great for fair prices or resiliency.

Trump’s Antitrust Enforcers Could Kill Unfinished Cases. Will They?

Federal antitrust enforcers have outstanding cases against AgriStats, Kroger and Albertsons, and Corteva and Syngenta. What will happen to them during a Trump administration?

EnforcementClaire KellowayNovember 14, 2024Antitrust, FTC, DOJ, Trump, agri stats, Corteva, Syngenta, Robinson-Patman, Secondary Feature

The Future of Food on the Ballot: What to Expect in a Harris or Trump Administration

Next week’s Presidential election will have profound implications for food policy.

PolicyClaire KellowayOctober 31, 2024election, Trump, Harris

USDA Announces Future Rulemaking for Fair Cattle Pricing

Cattle producers want policies to protect competition in cash markets that set prices for the whole industry. USDA took a first step to do something about it, but it can’t finish the job before Biden’s term is up.

Farmers Sue Cooks Venture Executives for Deception After Sudden Shut Down

Cooks Venture promised to be a different kind of poultry company. It used the same old abusive and reckless business tactics, hurting farmers and workers.

Revelations from the Kroger-Albertsons Trial

Internal communications reveal instances when Kroger only lowered its prices after Albertsons did. Plus new evidence that C&S will struggle to manage over 550 divested stores.

Mergers & Acquisitions, EnforcementClaire KellowaySeptember 13, 2024Kroger, Albertsons, FTC, Secondary Feature

Mars-Kellanova Deal Threatens Consumers with Inflation and Fewer Choices

Candy giant Mars wants to buy Kellogg's former snacking division. Mars says this deal will improve product innovation and choices for consumers. Critics say the opposite.

Mergers & AcquisitionsClaire KellowayAugust 22, 2024mars, CPG, candy, Kellanova, mergers, Secondary Feature

FTC’s Kroger-Albertson Case Gets a Hearing, European Commission Approves Bunge-Viterra Merger Contingent on Sell-Offs

The European Commission approved Bunge’s takeover of Viterra on the condition that it sell off its Central European oilseed business. Judges begin to hear antitrust enforcers’ case against Kroger-Albertsons.

USDA Partners with Amazon to Promote Small Business Contracting

Is the world’s largest e-commerce platform connecting small businesses with the government or “small-washing” a new monopoly tollbooth?

Policy, RetailClaire KellowayJuly 26, 2024Amazon, USDA, Procurement, Secondary Feature

New Study Argues Grain Reserves Could Stabilize Food Prices

Economist Isabella Weber makes the case that public food buffer stocks could mitigate price shocks in an increasingly unstable future.

Takeaways from the National Rural Grocery Summit, USDA Proposes Another Packers and Stockyards Rule

Rural grocers share challenges and innovations at bi-annual conference, and USDA better defines “unfair practices” under the Packers and Stockyards Act.