In FERN’s latest story, an op-ed published with The Washington Post, senior editor Ted Genoways argues that Kamala Harris’ vow to end price-gouging by food producers and grocery chains won’t be enough to rein in the big meatpackers.
Genoways writes: “Americans are spending a greater portion of their income on food than they have in decades. In the past few months, the growing outrage over price hikes has been expressed in a spate of lawsuits by mega-retailers — most recently, McDonald’s — against giant meat producers, accusing them of price-fixing and other monopolistic practices. But even if those lawsuits are settled, it won’t be enough to bring prices at restaurants or grocery stores back in line. Domestic cartels have a stranglehold on what we eat unlike anything we’ve seen in more than a century, and the federal government needs to enforce antitrust laws to break them up.”