American Cattle Ranchers Go Broke as Corporate Meatpackers Consolidate 85 Percent of Beef Market

American cattle ranchers, many operating family-owned businesses that have withstood generations, are facing bankruptcy as concentrated corporate power in the meatpacking industry squeezes their profits.

In interviews with the New York Times, ranchers said the corporate meatpackers that dominate the beef market — Tyson Foods, Cargill, the National Beef Packing Company, and JBS — are pushing them into insolvency and out of the market entirely.

The four meatpacking conglomerates once owned 35 percent of the market. Today, their share of the market stands at 85 percent as presidential administrations and Congress have been unwilling to step in with antitrust maneuvers, once readily used to break up corporate monopolies.

“We are contemplating getting out,” rancher Steve Charter told the Times. “We are not getting our share of the consumer dollars.”

“You’re feeding America and going broke doing it”: After years of consolidation, four companies dominate the meatpacking industry, while many ranchers are barely hanging on.https://t.co/WtSzgcPmyC#rcalfinthenews

— R-CALF USA (@RCALFUSA) December 27, 2021

Even as inflation has sent beef prices skyrocketing for American consumers, the ranchers say their share of the $66 billion industry has been transferred to the corporate meatpackers whom they say are controlling prices within the industry. – READ MORE