Ground Beef Superintendent

DOJ sends letters to 8 major grocers over beef prices. Published on 6 September 2026 at 7:24 pm - Written by Chris Martin - Reading duration: 2 minutes The U.S. Department of Justice sent letters to eight major grocery retailers on September 2, expanding its antitrust investigation into rising beef prices to include Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Amazon, Albertsons, Aldi, Publix, and Ahold Delhaize USA. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. dated the letters July 14 and addressed them to each company regarding "recent increases in the retail price for beef." The DOJ said beef prices are "a critical concern to Americans, and a priority for this Justice Department." The letters request detailed information on retailers' beef pricing strategies, profit margins, costs, and purchasing arrangements covering the period from 2020 through 2026. Federal antitrust officials are also seeking records related to retail beef sales and prices, wholesale purchases from meatpackers, and analyses of trends in both wholesale and retail beef prices. The DOJ requested that company personnel brief investigators on how their beef pricing strategies and margins have changed over the six-year period, changes in their costs, and their wholesale arrangements for purchasing beef from meatpackers. This expansion marks the second phase of a broader federal investigation into the beef industry. In May 2026, the DOJ announced a criminal antitrust probe into the "Big Four" meatpackers - Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef - which collectively slaughter about 85% of U.S. grain-fattened cattle. The investigation was launched after President Donald Trump accused meatpacking companies of manipulating beef prices through collusion and supply restrictions. Beef prices have become a significant consumer concern. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts beef and veal prices will rise 9.8 percent in 2026, outpacing broader food inflation of 2.5 percent. Ground beef prices are up 18 percent from January 2025, according to NBC News data tracking. The surge reflects both supply constraints and market concentration - the U.S. cattle herd reached its lowest level since the 1950s, with 86.2 million head of cattle and calves as of January 1, 2026. Meatpacker Tyson Foods previously agreed to pay $82.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by grocers and other businesses that accused it of conspiring to inflate beef prices by restricting supply. The DOJ's expansion to the retail level suggests investigators are examining whether high prices result from market concentration at the meatpacking stage, retail pricing decisions, or both. The investigation reflects broader Trump administration efforts to address food costs. Trump signed executive orders to expand meat processing and livestock competition, including a proposal to allow farmers and ranchers "the right to process their own food" in an effort to bypass what the administration called a "nasty monopoly" in the meat industry. Sources. * Reuters - DOJ announcement, letter details, meatpacker market share, Tyson Foods settlement * Fox Business - Letter scope, information requests, cattle herd data, Trump administration initiatives * USDA Economic Research Service - 2026 beef price forecast (9.8 percent), broader food inflation comparison * NBC News - Ground beef price increase from January 2025 (18 percent) Give your feedback. Chris Martin is a US economics and current affairs journalist covering the intersection of policy, markets, and everyday financial life. With a background in financial reporting and a sharp eye for the stories behind the numbers, Chris brings clarity to some of the most complex issues shaping the American economy today. At ECIKS.org, Chris covers breaking developments across domestic economic policy, business strategy, Wall Street movements, and political decisions that ripple through financial markets. His reporting blends rigorous data analysis with accessible storytelling making critical information useful for investors, entrepreneurs, and engaged citizens alike. ECIKS.org is an independent media. Support ECIKS by adding ECIKS to your Google News favorites:

Antitrust enforcement lags, as foreign control of meat sector grows. What happened to the Trump Administration's promised investigation? July 27, 2026 In May, an announcement by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins of a criminal antitrust investigation into the "Big Four" meatpackers (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef) over potential collusion and beef price inflation aroused hope among cattle producers. Unfortunately, there has been no apparent movement in the investigation, and cattle markets continue to be highly volatile and completely disconnected from consumer prices. Since the announcement in May, the futures markets have plummeted, risen, and crashed again, costing producers hundreds of millions in value. The cash market for live cattle in South Dakota dropped over $380 per head from high to low. The commodity futures markets were promoted as a tool to manage risk. For decades these markets have instead been a tool to manipulate commodity prices to the benefit of large corporate buyers. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, held captive by corporate interests, has failed to police market-distorting trading. In addition to the CFTC, antitrust cops at the USDA, Justice Department, and FTC are asleep at the wheel, as record volumes of unlabeled, non-inspected, below-cost-of-production imports meet the growing demand for beef, a far cry from the competitive marketplace of the 1970s during which producers received over 80% of the consumer beef dollar. Today, powerful unregulated middlemen have cooperated in lowering prices to livestock producers while gouging consumers. Anticompetitive practices have reduced producer share of the retail dollar to as low as 27% during the pandemic and other unpredictable "black swan" events. An unfair and unsustainable share of the meat dollar now goes to these powerful middlemen, including the big meatpackers, big food service, and the big retailers, in what has become a massive mining operation of rural America. Mike Callicrate has been here before. In 1921, Wyoming Senator John Kendrick convinced Congress to take action to protect livestock producers with this description of the intensifying market monopoly: "It has been brought to such a high degree of concentration that it is dominated by few men. The big packers, so-called, stand between hundreds of thousands of producers on one hand and millions of consumers on the other. They have their fingers on the pulse of both the producing and consuming markets and are in such a position of strategic advantage they have unrestrained power to manipulate both markets to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of over 99 percent of the people of the country. Such power is too great to repose in the hands of any men." Today's meatpacking/big food monopoly is far more powerful than the robber barons of Senator Kendrick's day. The Packers and Stockyards Act they adopted to protect farmers and ranchers by stopping unfair business practices and preventing monopolies has been gutted by financially compromised presidential administrations and the judges they appoint. New rules to clarify the original intent have been blocked by both Trump administrations. Now, following decades of forced U.S. herd liquidation, the big meatpackers are closing plants, further reducing its nation's ability to feed ourselves. Misguided trade policies are replacing beef from domestic sources with cheaper, lower quality imports, up nearly 10% over the past year. Despite the growing infestation of New World screw worm coming across the southern border, USDA recently announced reopening to Mexican cattle imports. This decision, with total disregard for its nation's herd health and the welfare of domestic producers, has precipitated another devastating market crash from which middlemen and insider traders will greatly profit. Independent stocker and feeder operations have never paid more for replacement cattle, which leaves them highly vulnerable to collapsing prices, potentially adding more losses to the 77,000 feeding operations already out of business. Large packer-aligned feeding operations already have a long history of receiving preferential treatment and pushing replacement cattle prices beyond the break-even point for independent non-vertically aligned stocker/feeders. Buying in a more competitive market than you're selling into is a fool's game. Where are the law enforcers after the many recent court settlements for price fixing and market manipulation? The attorneys get paid, the meatpackers pay a minor fee equivalent to the cost of doing business, and nothing changes for producers and consumers. No producer in their right mind would consider increasing their herd with the meat cartel's power to dictate prices now and in the future. That's why its domestic cattle numbers are at a 70-year low, with serious long-term consequences for consumers. Only strict law enforcement and renewed competition can correct this injustice. JBS, the biggest meatpacker in the world, was convicted of corruption in Brazil for bribing government officials and using stolen money to buy up U.S. slaughter capacity in all three meat categories, beef, pork and poultry. In spite of that, JBS still won approval to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, following a $5 million dollar donation to the president's inauguration fund. What further damage can this company do with access to America's capital markets? Hope of rebuilding its nation's cattle herd is a fantasy unless the market hears a clear message: market manipulators, including the big meatpackers, food service companies, and retailers, will be investigated, prosecuted, and, if warranted, broken up. Mike Callicrate don't need more speeches in Washington, Mike Callicrate need action! Mike Callicrate has allowed ourselves to become dependent on a Brazilian crime family and other monopolists for its food. With so many supply chain failures, gaps in food safety - both foreign and domestic - and military conflicts around the world, it should be obvious why the inability to feed ourselves is a serious national security problem. Independent Beef Association of North Dakota (I-BAND) PO Box 2 Sterling, ND 58572 www.i-band.org [email protected] Kerry Docktor 701-220-7941