Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Administration taking a ‘hard look’ at agriculture sector, particularly meat packing, (May 4, 2026)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

Settlement announcement anticipated within the week in a case involving alleged information exchanges in the markets for chicken, pork, and turkey.

President Trump directed the Justice Department, back in November 2025, to investigate the “Big 4” meatpackers for potential collusion and price manipulation. The Department of Justice has since confirmed the probe. On May 4, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro held a press conference to discuss progress on the investigation.

Blanche opened the press conference by noting that, “in the beef industry, the big four processors control over 85 percent of the beef processing market.” He added that two of these four companies are primarily foreign-owned. To date, the Justice Department probe of the sector has involved the review of more than 3 million documents and interviews of hundreds of industry participants. Blanche would not comment on when a lawsuit might be filed. He did note, however, that “there is a lot of work that's been done and there’s a lot of work to do.” He added that the agency was moving as quickly as it can.

The officials called on whistleblowers to assist with the probe. Blanche specifically called on farmers, purchasers, and processors to share information that can help in the investigation.

In wrapping up his prepared remarks, Blanche said that the Justice Department “will use every law enforcement tool available to help reduce food prices and vigorously enforcement the antitrust laws to ensure every aspect of the agricultural industry competes on a fair playing field.”

Coordination between Justice and Agriculture Departments. Rollins explained that the Justice and Agriculture Departments, along with the White House, were united by a “mission to protect our great American farmers and ranchers.” She pointed to the September 2025 Memorandum of Understanding between the agencies that formalized their partnership and created channels for regular consultation and communication between the agencies.

In her remarks, Rollins identified the four meatpackers that control 85 percent of the market: “JBS, a Brazilian-owned company, Cargill, Tyson Foods, and National Beef, another Brazilian company.”

“These companies now have an unprecedented ability to wield market power and influence prices paid for cattle--definitely more so than if we had greater competition,” said the Secretary.

According to Rollins, growing concentration in the industry “has led to a frightening landscape for cattle ranchers.” She added that “industry consolidation reduces options for our ranchers looking to sell their cattle; it weakens their negotiating power; and it risks reliance upon a single buyer." In other words, ranchers have fewer options for selling their cattle.

Foreign ownership of meatpacking. “Half of these meatpacking giants, including the largest meat packer in the world, are either foreign owned or have significant foreign ownership and control,” said Rollins. The secretary suggested that this was not only a threat to cattle producers but also to America itself.

“Food security is truly national security,” Rollins warned.

The Secretary suggested that it is now time “to take a very hard look and to begin onshoring and reshoring.”

“The health and diversification of all of these [agricultural] communities, including the packing community, is vital to our long national security agenda. More U.S.-owned packers in more regions of the country provides more opportunities for our ranchers and stronger food security for our country.”

Consolidation was a threat to our sovereignty, freedom and liberty, according to Rollins, but the “biggest priority would be consolidation at the hands of foreign countries and foreign-owned companies.”

Navarro reiterated the concern that the beef market, as well as other markets for chicken, turkey and pork, is suffering from industry concentration, and that two of the four meat packing giants are Brazilian.

“It's not just price gouging and price fixing we have to worry about,” said Navarro. “It's also the influence of foreigners on our supply chain and the national security issues that are associated.”

Upcoming settlement agriculture-sector antitrust action. The officials discussed a settlement, likely to be announced later this week, in an antitrust case in the agriculture sector. While they did not specifically name the settling defendants or case, all signs pointed to an impending settlement in the U.S. Department of Justice/multi-state antitrust case against Agri-Stats, Inc. That action, filed in 2023, involved alleged anticompetitive information exchanges among broiler chicken, pork, and turkey processors. A trial start in that matter was recently pushed to May 18 to allow for continued settlement discussions.

Navarro speculated that the settlement would “unleash a set of forces that are going to ripple through this industry rapidly and in a way which is going to allow us to get to the bottom of this.”

Companies: Agri Stats, Inc.; Cargill, Inc.; JBS N.V.; National Beef Packing Co.; Tyson Foods, Inc.

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