Cutthroat Business

Abstract

The production of meat is almost entirely controlled by a small group of multinational agribusinesses. These corporations own everything from animal genetics to feed to wholesaling to slaughtering to butchering-leaving only the raising of the animals to nominally independent farmers, who are, in turn, controlled through one-sided contracts. Packing companies use this power not just to push down costs and make growing and slaughtering animals more specialized and efficient (though they have done that), nor just to bargain for more favorable deals from farmers, workers, retailers, and consumers (they have done that, too). They use it to extract subsidies and regulatory favors (such as remaining open during COVID), to avoid accountability for pollution and for their power over many rural communities, and to shape the information and narrative the public hears about their industry. Taking on the power of meatpackers and its impacts on working conditions, prices, animals, rural communities, and the environment would require a comprehensive set of reforms. But a surprisingly large amount would be possible by revitalizing enforcement of a century-old statute that has largely lain dormant during the transformation of meat production. Congress passed the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA) in response to the first wave of integration and consolidation in meatpacking. Under the Biden Administration, the USDA has begun to put it into renewed use. This Article, the first extended analysis of the PSA and its relevance to the contemporary meatpacking industry, situates these regulatory efforts in doctrine and history and explores how they might be extended into a broader effort at rebalancing power in the meatpacking industry.

Keywords: antitrust, meatpacking, agriculture, administrative law, regulated industries, work law, franchising