About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

58 S.D. L. Rev. 611 (2013)
The Beef with Big Meat: Meatpacking and Antitrust in America's Heartland

handle is hein.journals/sdlr58 and id is 643 raw text is: THE BEEF WITH BIG MEAT: MEATPACKING AND ANTITRUST IN AMERICA'S HEARTLAND KELSEA KENZY SUTTONt The twenty-first century has seen dramatic changes in America's food system. Since the 1920s, however, the landscape of the meatpacking industry has changed very little. In 1919, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC') found thefive major meatpacking companies controlled around fifty-five percent of the market. Congress responded to the FTC's findings with the Packers and Stockyards Act in 1921. Despite the Act, agricultural antitrust laws have remained largely unenforced, and today, America has an even higher degree of concentration within the meatpacking industry. This concentration, in addition to increased vertical integration, forward livestock contracts, and a lack of government intervention, has led to the widespread conclusion that the largest packers' influence over the market is far too strong, and the market is not functioning competitively. Traditionally, the belief has been that only the federal government can solve the anticompetitive environment in the meatpacking industry. While this issue must be addressed at the federal level to dismantle the packer strongholds, state authorities, local authorities, and individual consumers can act to enhance competition, as each wields considerable power to be an effective part of the solution. I. INTRODUCTION The number of Americans participating in farming and ranching has dropped from twenty-five percent in the early twentieth century to only two percent as of the 1990s.I Most Americans do not know where their food comes from or how it is produced.2 With the advent of modem technology and increased governmental activity in commercial agriculture, determining where j I would like to thank the South Dakota Law Review for this opportunity and honor. I would also like to thank my editors throughout the process, Brittany Hage Hatting, Anthony Franken, and Steven Iverson. Thank you to my husband, my family, and my constant friends who supported the process; any project of this nature is first and foremost a collaboration. 1. Matt Chester, Note, Anticorporate Farming Legislation: Constitutionality and Economic Policy, 9 DRAKE J. AGRIC. L. 79, 80 (2004) (citing Jan Stout, Note, The Missouri Anti-Corporate Farming Act: Reconciling the Interests of the Independent Farmer and the Corporate Farm, 64 UMKC L. REv. 835, 838 (1996)). According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), only 2.2 million Americans are farmers, which is less than one percent of the U.S. population. U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., CENSUS OF AGRIC. (2007), available at http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/ Online Highlights/Fact Sheets/Demographics. 2. See Nationwide Surveys Reveal Disconnect Between Americans and Their Food, PR NEWSWIRE, Sept. 22, 2011, http://www.pmewswire.com/news-releases/nationwide-surveys-reveal- disconnect-between-americans-and-their-food- 130336143.html.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most