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Friday, May 02, 2014

Book details how meat industry largely foiled plans for regulations and became an untouchable giant

"With millions of dollars in lobbying and a nationally organized movement using ordinary citizens, the meat industry beat back the Obama administration’s attempts to better regulate the chicken and beef industries. 'Big Meat' emerged from the battle stronger than ever, with firmer control of both producers and consumers, says author Christopher Leonard," reports the Daily Yonder, which excerpts part of Leonard's book "The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business."

"The story of how Obama failed shows how the administration quickly backed down when corporate interests put up a fight, and how political operatives muzzled and undermined the very reformers Obama’s team installed after his election," Leonard writes. "It is a pattern that has played itself out in failed efforts to reign in the nation’s biggest banks or stop consolidation in the airlines industry, to take just two examples."
 
"The failed attempt to rein in the big meat packers’ power also illustrates the remarkable level of influence that giant meat companies have in Washington, where they quietly shape public policy to their advantage through groups like the American Meat Institute and the National Chicken Council," Leonard writes. "Their well-orchestrated effort to beat back Obama’s reform efforts has arguably left them more powerful than they were when Obama entered office. And like many of the changes in America’s meat industry, it all played out under the public’s radar."

"Since Obama has taken office, the nation’s four biggest meat companies have steadily hiked prices and widened their profit margins," Leonard writes. "Last year alone, Tyson Foods reported a record profit of $778 million as the company raised prices for chicken, pork and beef. And in rural America, companies like Tyson are conducting business as they always have, using the tournament system to make chicken farmers compete against one another. The only difference is that now, the big meat companies have proved that Washington is incapable of doing anything about it." (Read more)

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