Latest Stories — Food & Power

Farmers Join Labor Union in Call to Protect Workers, Citing Need for Farmer Labor Solidarity - Poultry CEOs Indicted for Price Fixing

A group of farmers and ranchers last week joined the leading meatpacking workers’ union to demand greater protections for meatpacking workers, acknowledging a shared fight against mistreatment by large meatpackers in the wake of COVID-19.

LaborClaire KellowayJune 4, 2020Antitrust, COVID-19, meatpacking, ranchers, safety, solidarity, UFCW, workers, pork, resiliency, slaughter

Report Exposes System of Big Food Kickbacks to Cafeteria Contractors, Cutting out Local Producers

A report released last week by Real Food Generation exposes new details about a secretive system of kickbacks between Big Food corporations and cafeteria operators.

Meatpacking More Dangerous Today Than a Generation Ago, Amplifying COVID-19 Crisis

Meatpacking plants have become national hot spots for the novel coronavirus.

Labor, Processing & DistributionClaire KellowayMay 7, 2020slaughter, labor, resiliency

Consolidated and Inflexible Food Supply Chains Drive Both Shortages and Waste

COVID-19 has upended America’s food supply. With the loss of big buyers in restaurants and school districts, farmers without a place to sell their foods are dumping milk, tilling crops back into the ground, and euthanizing egg-laying hens.

USDA Continues to Lift Meat Processing Line Speed Limits During Pandemic, Threatening Frontline Workers and Consumers

While the country grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, USDA food safety officials have been making decisions that could further sicken Americans and threaten frontline food workers.

Processing & DistributionClaire KellowayApril 9, 2020chicken, Food Safety, FSIS, inspectors, NPIS, NSIS, pork, slaughter, tyson, USDA, workers, labor

Ranchers and Lawmakers Decry Market Manipulation, as Cattle Prices Plummet and Monopolies Profit on Coronavirus

Wholesale beef prices have jumped to record levels, as shoppers stockpile meat in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. But this run on beef isn’t helping cattle ranchers. On the contrary, cattle prices have plummeted since January, putting many ranchers on the brink of collapse.

Poultry & LivestockClaire KellowayMarch 25, 2020Antitrust, collusion, consolidation, COVID-19, DOJ, JBS, price fixing, R-CALF, tyson, USDA, resiliency, Beef

Big Ag Eyes Cut of Farmers’ Profits in New Pricing Program

Agribusiness wants to dramatically change the way farmers value and pay for a bag of corn seed, to get a second bite at producer profits. Bayer, the world’s leading seed manufacturer, has been piloting an “outcome-based” pricing program that adjusts the cost of its seeds or agrichemicals based on how well its products perform. Farmers and antitrust scholars worry that goliaths such as Bayer will use this data-driven pricing program to further squeeze farmers and to lock more growers into the behemoths’ product bundles and digital agriculture platforms.

Seeds & AgrichemicalsClaire KellowayMarch 12, 2020Bayer, monsanto, seeds, Tying, GMO, Seeds & Agrichemicals, Big Data

U.S. Lifts Ban on Brazilian Beef, Threatening Ranchers and Consumers

Food safety officials lifted a ban on Friday on Brazilian beef imports, introducing a potential windfall for multinational meatpackers and significant threats to American ranchers and consumers.

Processing & DistributionClaire KellowayFebruary 26, 2020Brazil, Food Safety, JBS, marfrig, OCM, R-CALF, Trade, foreign ownership

Canadian Antitrust Enforcers Investigating Big Ag for Stifling Startup

Canada’s Competition Bureau is looking into an allegation that agribusiness giants Bayer, Corteva, BASF, Cargill, and others tried to crush an online ag retailing startup, the California-based Farmers Business Network (FBN), according to court filings reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Seeds & AgrichemicalsClaire KellowayFebruary 25, 2020Antitrust, Bayer, monsanto, seeds, Seeds & Agrichemicals, GMO, Big Data

Personalization or Price Discrimination?

Personalized pricing was a popular topic at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York City this month, reports Food & Power Reporter Claire Kelloway. Grocery stores can leverage a combination of data analytics and customer identification and tracking tools to offer real-time individual pricing and promotions, both online and in-store. While the practice may still be in its infancy, some experts believe that personalized prices will become the standard in food retail and beyond.

RetailClaire KellowayJanuary 30, 2020grocery, personalized prices, price discrimination, retail, Big Data

Trump’s USDA Sides With Corporate Meatpackers Over Farmers, in Latest GIPSA Proposal

On Monday, the USDA thwarted a decade of efforts to help farmers seek justice for discrimination, retaliation, and unfair treatment by meatpackers. Trump’s USDA introduced new criteria to determine whether a meatpacker violated the Packers and Stockyards Act, after withdrawing an Obama-era proposal two years ago. This latest proposal omits several critical farmer protections from the previous rule and introduces new language that could codify abusive industry practices.

Booker Bill Would Phase out Factory Farms and Revive the Packers and Stockyards Act

Presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill on Monday to radically reform an animal agriculture system that currently puts independent producers, rural communities, and consumers at risk.