consolidation

Rep. Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat, introduced a bill yesterday that would impose a temporary moratorium on large agribusiness and food industry mergers. The bill is a companion to legislation introduced last month in the Senate by New Jersey’s Cory Booker.

Tyson, the largest U.S. meat company, will buy Keystone Foods for $2.16 billion. Keystone's prior owner, Marfrig Global Foods, announced the brand was up for sale earlier this year. The deal will face regulatory review in at least the U.S. and China.

Mergers, tech companies, and private equity ownership are reshaping the grocery retail sector, as a continued wave of consolidation threatens smaller chains and their employees.

A USDA report released March 20 finds that consolidation is rampant across agricultural sectors, affecting nearly all crops and most livestock.

Analysts predict that John Deere will raise its profit forecasts for the year on Friday, despite a dismal year for crop prices. Bloomberg reports that a possible reason for the company’s rising profits could be the mechanical needs of large, consolidated mega-farms.

Thousands of workers have been laid off and several factories shuttered since the Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital helped facilitate Kraft’s acquisition of Heinz in 2015. Now, at the end of the trademark cost-cutting cycle that follows many 3G deals, Kraft Heinz must grapple with changing consumer preferences, the Wall Street Journal reports.

As farms got bigger over the years, so did the equipment that farms use to cover the land. Farm equipment dealerships also got bigger, buying or pushing out competitors, and that may explain the problem of stagnant wages in rural areas: When there are fewer employers, wages show less growth, reports the New York Times.

The largest U.S. grain processor, ADM, is pursuing a takeover of Bunge, another of the giants of the grain trade that collectively are known as ABCD — ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus, an unnamed source told Reuters. Due to low prices engendered by a string of bumper crops worldwide, margins are tight in the grain trade.

A special review panel of U.S. officials "has concluded there are no unresolved national security concerns" in the proposed purchase by German chemical giant Bayer of St. Louis-based Monsanto for $66 billion. "Bayer and Monsanto will continue to cooperate with the authorities in order to complete the transaction in early 2018," said a terse joint statement by the companies.

Pilgrim's Pride, the second-largest U.S. poultry processor, will buy the European poultry producer Moy Park for $1.3 billion in a deal that its chief executive says will "position Pilgrim's to become a global player," reported Agrimoney. Moy Park claims a 25-percent share of the chicken market in western Europe.

Bayer’s $57 billion purchase of Monsanto, the latest in a wave of consolidation among seed and ag-chemical companies, faces an in-depth investigation by EU regulators over concerns the merger would result in higher prices and reduced competition in the seed, pesticide, and plant trait sector, said the Wall Street Journal.

The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, said it terminated its November 2015 deal to sell Precision Planting to Deere and Co., the world's largest farm-equipment maker, and was looking for another purchaser. The Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against the sale to Deere, saying it would dominate the market for high-speed planters, which are expected to become the industry standard.

The administrative arm of the European Union approved the merger of Dow and DuPont based on their promises to divest some assets, says Deutsche Welle. It was the first decision on a wave of proposed consolidations that would reshape the seed and ag-chemical sector into a "big three," down from the six firms that now compete.

After decades of gaming and monopolizing the system governing commercial fishing rights in New England, a crime lord known as The Codfather has been kicked from his throne in New Bedford, Massachusetts, writes Ben Goldfarb in FERN’s latest story, co-produced with Mother Jones. Rafael will plead guilty for fraud before a federal judge in Boston on Thursday, facing 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.

The USDA would offer at least $75 million a year for the development of regionally adapted plant seeds and livestock breeds at public universities under a bill filed by five senators. Sponsors said regional diversity would make the U.S. food chain more resilient and more productive.