Attorney General Todd Blanche opened a criminal investigation on Friday into the four corporate giants that control 85 percent of the American meat market. The probe targets Cargill, JBS, National Beef, and Tyson Foods for alleged anti-competitive behavior that has driven food prices to record highs. In a wood-paneled hearing room, investigators detailed how these conglomerates have systematically dismantled the independent family farm. According to the Department of Justice, the investigation will focus on whether these firms coordinated to lower the prices paid to ranchers while raising the cost of beef for mothers at the grocery store.

At the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, nearly 3,000 workers have walked off the job to protest wage theft and unsafe line speeds. The strikers stood in the biting mountain wind, holding hand-painted signs near the massive cooling towers of the facility. These laborers, including many from the local Haitian community, claim the company has prioritized industrial efficiency over the basic dignity of the man with a knife in his hand. Per the union filing, the strike comes as the 'Big Four' report record margins while the average American family struggles to afford a Sunday roast.

This paper identifies a troubling pattern in these developments. While the government finally turns its eye toward the greed of the meatpacking cartels, the crisis is already felt at every kitchen table in the country. The consolidation of our food supply into the hands of four distant boards of directors was a choice to value efficiency over the security of our neighbors. The thread linking the DOJ probe to the picket lines in Colorado, though stated in no filing, is the recognition that a country that cannot feed its families at a fair price has lost its way. When the middleman grows fat while the farmer and the father both grow lean, the moral contract of our economy is broken.