Price-fixing settlement agreement underscores need for bipartisan bill to improve market access for independent producers

February 3, 2022 - WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and co-author of the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, issued the following statement after JBS settled a lawsuit over beef price-fixing:

“If there were any doubt about the shenanigans Big Packers play to line their pockets at the expense of consumers and independent producers, look no further than JBS’ $52.5 million settlement in price-fixing litigation. The other members of the Big Four packers continue to face similar allegations. Although the settlement is a spit in the ocean compared to JBS’ record profit throughout the pandemic, it validates what cattle producers have been telling me when they try to get a fair price in the marketplace. It’s time to put an end to these price fixing schemes once and for all. Congress must pass the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act to bring access and accountability to the meatpacking industry.

“Those who oppose efforts to improve market access for independent producers – especially national organizations who claim to back America’s farmers and ranchers – need to take a serious look at Big Packers’ anticompetitive tactics, and ask themselves whose interests they are really serving,” Grassley said.

Grassley has long pushed federal law enforcement and agriculture officials to examine anticompetitive activity in the meatpacking industry. Read more about Grassley’s efforts to improve transparency in the meat packing industry here.


Cattle grazing on a public land allotment administered by the BLM's Eagle Lake Field Office in northeast California.
Credit: Jeff Fontana, BLM
Source: Senator Chuck Grassley