The exploding cost of meat is a result of monopolization within the meat packing industry, Senator Chuck Schumer said at an Auburn event Tuesday, calling for tougher federal regulations over the meat industry.
At the town's Tops Market, Schumer announced the Family Grocer and Farmer Relief Act. The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission to break up the four largest meatpacking companies — Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — which together own 85 percent of beef purchases in the United States. It also targets foreign ownership in meat and food processors.
"It's time for Congress to step up, break up the monopolies, bring down the costs for Central New York families and all American families and that's what I intend to do." Schumer said, describing the meatpacking companies as “corporate goliaths.”
He pitched the bill as a necessary step to address the cost-of-living crisis, as well as a way of supporting small farmers in Upstate New York who have lost market power.
Ken Post, a local farmer who has been working locally for 50 years and sells two to three animals at a time, spoke in support of the bill.
"We need to level the playing field so that everyone is on the same level," Post said. "The check I got today for my pigs was abysmal. ... We need to rein in these big four and have some more support for locally raised beef and pork."
Post spoke about his struggle to compete with large meatpacking companies that can outcompete small family operations.
“It is still too much for the person that's working paycheck to paycheck,” Post said. “I've lost a lot of customers who just simply cannot afford it. I still have a few, [but] money's not an object. They will buy, but the majority of my beef now goes to the commercial markets.”
The bill also got endorsements from Samantha DeRiso, vice president of the United Food Workers Local One and Becky Lare, vice president of the Food Bank of Central New York.
“No one should have to wonder whether they can afford their next meal,” said Lare. “At a moment when so many families are struggling to put food on the table, we need a food system that works better for consumers, supports producers, and helps make healthy food more affordable and accessible.”
The bill’s passage is unlikely in a Democrat-minority Congress, but Schumer believes it also has support from some Republicans. If Democrats take back control of Congress in November’s midterms, he said the bill will pass.
“We're going to use the old antitrust hammers, which worked so well years ago, to create real competition,” Schumer said. “That’s not Democrat or Republican, that’s American.”
Auburn mayor Jimmy Giannettino spoke in support of the bill, citing affordability as one of the top issues for residents of the community.
“Lately, the number one thing we've been hearing is affordability, from gas prices to rent to health insurance and certainly to groceries,” Giannettino said. “Obviously, some of the rhetoric out of Washington makes us believe that people aren't paying attention to that.”
The bill also targets foreign ownership of domestic meat processing. The largest meat company in the world is JBS, which owns 18.5 percent of the domestic beef market and is based in Brazil. Smithfield Foods, the largest producer of pork in the United States, was bought in 2013 by the Chinese company WH Group.
In addition to their market power, meatpacking companies also contribute millions of dollars to both political parties. JBS donated $5 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, which raised watchdog concerns after the Securities and Exchange Commission then approved listing the company on the New York Stock Exchange. In the 2024 election cycle, Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, and JBS donated millions of dollars to candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties, according to campaign contribution disclosures.
When asked about how campaign contributions are influencing legislative control over the meatpacking industry, Schumer said: “There's a lot of corruption going on in Washington. The amount of money in politics, just like the prices of beef, are going through the roof.”
