In a Thursday press release, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) unveiled a new tool to be used by farmers and ranchers to report anticompetitive activity.
“This new online tool will help USDA and the Justice Department address anticompetitive actions and create livestock and poultry markets that are fairer to our nation’s producers,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “I encourage producers who are aware of potential violations of competition laws to submit information to the portal so we can take appropriate action to create more competitive markets in the agricultural sector.”
In the wake of consolidation, sprawling antitrust actions allege that major meatpacking companies, like Tyson Foods and Cargill, used price reporting generated by Agri-Stats to keep prices artificially high. Parallel cases are proceeding in various industries, including chicken and pork.
According to the agency, the tool is designed to aid the administration in their goal of “creating more competitive agricultural markets that are fairer to producers and consumers.” The release states that “aranchers received more than 60 cents of every dollar a consumer spent on beef 50 years ago, compared to approximately 39 cents today.”
Reports made through the system can be anonymous, and could lead to an investigation after agency review, the release explained.
