A processor, or slaughterhouse, buys the animals, kills them and turns them into steaks, hamburgers and other cuts of meat. It can be difficult to follow how a steer becomes a hamburger and consolidation within the meat industry has made that process even more opaque.Įssentially, a cattle ranch that doesn’t raise animals itself sells young cattle to a feedlot, where they are fed until they’re ready for slaughter. It is, however, a positive sign for Ulmer and smaller-scale meatpackers hoping to expand in a system that has arguably not been working very well for anyone except the giant firms. Industry analysts have broadly welcomed the Biden administration’s move, though there is disagreement about how much, and how quickly, it is likely to affect prices for consumers and ranchers, and whether it can amount to any meaningful reduction of consolidation without bolder antitrust moves. is announcing an action plan to strengthen competition and keep fighting for fair prices for farmers, ranchers, and families. These middlemen use their position to overcharge grocery stores and ultimately, consumers. Cargill and Tyson representatives declined to answer questions.Īs the Biden policy to boost independent meat processors was unveiled, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, tweeted a graphic that compared wholesale beef prices and cattle values.įour big companies control 50+% of meat processing. Representatives of JBS and National Beef Packing did not respond to interview requests. “You have these big packers lobbying hard against the independent producer,” Grassley said. A bipartisan bill introduced last year by Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, would require meatpackers to buy a certain amount of livestock from independent ranchers, and a second bipartisan bill would create a special office to investigate anticompetitive activities. The graph shows that in 2018 the top four companies controlled more than 75% of the beef market and nearly 75% of the pork market.Īnd after decades of failed attempts to better regulate competition in the meat industry, Congress has recently tried to make progress. The top four companies are Cargill, JBS, Tyson and National. It’s part of a wider move by Biden to blame some corporations for high prices as the president faces inflation at its highest level in 40 years.īar graph showing the portion of the meat market controlled by the top four companies.
In January he pledged $1bn to expand meat and poultry processing with the aim of helping independent processors like Ulmer compete with the big four companies, as well as expanding choice and lowering prices for consumers. Joe Biden has announced a focus on righting the lopsided industry. That imbalance, experts say, has made it more difficult for ranchers to get a fair price for their cattle and for independent processors to stay in business, even though meat prices have risen sharply during the pandemic.Īt the consumer end of the chain, beef and veal have gone up 16% in the last year, according to the latest figures from the Department of Labor, while food prices overall have gone up 7%. The conglomerates – JBS, Cargill, Tyson Foods and National Beef Packing – control about 85% of the beef industry’s processing capacity. “But you can’t kill without a destination.”Ĩ5% of the US beef market is dominated by four firms “If I had an account with Lynn’s Dakotamart for six a week, I could kill six a week,” Ulmer said as he tried to scrub beef blood from his pants at the plant just across the Missouri River from Pierre, the state capital. At the moment they are only able to slaughter a handful of cows a week and are required to return the meat to the owner rather than sell it to retailers, which has made the facility’s future uncertain.įinding a viable situation is not easy, with thousands of cattle ranchers and independent slaughterhouses across the United States stuck in a beef-production system dominated by four huge companies. Nearly two years later, they’re still trying to get certified by the state, but have been held back by what they say are unreasonable requirements. Upset that local cattle ranchers had to send animals hundreds of miles away to be slaughtered before being sent back to Fort Pierre-area stores and restaurants, they hoped to provide a local option. Ulmer and about a dozen other investors bought and reopened the shuttered meatpacking plant in Fort Pierre, South Dakota, in 2020.
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