Time's Up for the Big Four Meatpackers

The Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act hopes "to restore competition in the meatpacking industry by reducing excessive concentration and market power and ultimately reduce prices for American consumers, and for other purposes." 

This legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Peter Welch (D-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

The Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act:

• Makes it unlawful for a major meatpacking conglomerate to control more than one major type of meat, forcing the biggest players to choose a line of business;
• Imposes hard caps on the concentration of beef markets at both the regional and national levels;
• If these thresholds are exceeded, the FTC must order targeted divestitures—selling off plants, facilities, or business units, or spinning off new independent firms—until markets are competitive again
• Directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to design and enforce divestiture plans, so the law delivers real structural change, not just fines that companies treat as a cost of doing business, while maintaining or improving employment, honoring collective bargaining agreements, and promoting safer and more stable workplaces for workers across the supply chain.
• Prohibits foreign leverage over the domestic meat market, empowering FTC to protect competition and national security;
• Links the bill’s structural reforms to kitchen-table prices by focusing on unfair and unjustly discriminatory pricing practices in retail and wholesale meat markets that hit independent and neighborhood grocers hardest;
• Authorizes the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide financial assistance, loan guarantees, technical assistance, and other support to farmers’ cooperatives and small business concerns that seek to acquire, operate, or expand meatpacking plants or facilities divested under the Act;
• Makes failure to divest enforceable under the FTC act, backed by significant civil penalties.

The text of the legislation can be seen here. A breakdown of each section of the legislation can be seen here.