DOJ Seeks Public Tips in Beef Packer Antitrust Probe

R-CALF United Stock Growers of America CEO Bill Bullard says beef packer concentration has been silently devastating American cattle farms and ranches for decades, and federal probes into the meat packing industry are now bringing that concern to the forefront.

“Department of Justice is seeking public help in order to continue their investigation, so they're calling upon the public to provide information that the public may have regarding the conduct of the meat packers, so they're asking the public to provide information if they have any information on the beef packers agreeing to set prices in the industry or agreeing to certain slaughter volume levels in order to control prices.”

The Justice Department has reviewed more than 3 million documents and interviewed 1000’s of cattle producers, feeders, and industry participants as it determines the next steps in potential antitrust action against beef packers.

“They're going to need help in connecting all the dots, and is there people within the cattle industry, in the beef industry, that have the information that is vitally critical to the success of an investigation that leads to enforcement actions that will finally restructure this broken marketplace by restoring competitive market forces and eliminating the monopolistic forces that have been driving our industry for so long, and very importantly, have been shrinking our industry for decades.”

R-CALF USA’s Bill Bullard.