McDonaldâs has some beef with todayâs largest meat packers.
The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industryâs âBig Fourâ â Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company â and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonaldâs accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge âillegally inflatedâ amounts.
This collusion caused the beef market to become âa monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),â McDonaldâs suit reads â later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what âantitrust laws were designed to prevent.â
McDonaldâs alleges that the meat packersâ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companiesâ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.
A few years ago, I was hit hard with some food poisoning that had me in the hospital. I donât remember what it was, but it made me tune into food recall reports.
And those recall reports are FREQUENT, and theyâre mostly meat.
Iâm not a vegetarian, but I cut beef out of my diet last year. Pork is my next one. Chicken is going to be really hard though.
For years I never thought I could do vegetarian because I would miss bacon and chicken. Over a decade later and both of those things are so far down in my list of things I miss.