Antitrust Good for Cattle Industry

USDA and the Department of Justice have signed a memorandum of understanding to investigate potential antitrust issues within the agriculture industry. Our calf United Stock Growers of America, CEO Bill Bullard, shares his thoughts on the agreement and what it could mean for cattle producers.

“Initially, they're going to focus on the input side of agriculture, fertilizer costs, and equipment costs, for example, and determine if there are antitrust activities going on in those respective industries. We're going to continue working with them to have them look at the other side, the output side of agriculture, to look at our beef and cattle markets, and of course, there are litigation going on to address antitrust activities in the hog industry, the poultry industry, and the beef industry. And those cases are continuing. We know the Justice Department still has an ongoing investigation looking into the conduct of the meat packers and determining whether they had violated antitrust laws back during the COVID outbreak in 2020, so we applaud this action by the joint action by the Department of Justice and USDA to begin enforcing our antitrust laws to ensure that we have robust competition in US agriculture.”

According to the DOJ, this agreement will ensure effective antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition, lowers input costs, and benefits farmers, ranchers, and consumers.