Curbing Consolidation this Holiday Season

But curbing these problems and supporting our farmers will require real political will from our legislators and our community to combat some of the most powerful corporations on the planet. Until then, we can all take steps to avoid contributing to consolidation, especially around the holidays.

Consolidation Overview

You’ve likely heard the statistic from the National Farmers Union (NFU): farmers earn just 11.9 cents for every dollar spent on holiday meals. According to NFU’s President, Rob Larew, “Even in a season of gratitude, we must acknowledge the continuous inequality in our food system and agriculture industry…It’s long past time to fix a food system that works for corporations but not the families who grow and consume our food.” 

And our food system is favoring corporations at every stage, from seed to retail. We previously highlighted Farm Action’s Agriculture Consolidation Data Hub, which dives into concentration ratio four (CR4), a measurement of the combined share of the top four firms across various sectors in the food system. When a sector’s CR4 exceeds 40 percent, economists fear that market abuses are likely to occur. Almost every sector across our food and farming system—seeds, inputs, equipment, meat processing, and retail— is plagued by CR4s that far surpass 40 percent.

In other words, our food system is becoming more consolidated and less competitive. A few major companies control the inputs farmers rely on, like seeds and fertilizer, and they also largely control how and where farmers process and sell their products. When a few corporations have control over the main costs of our food system, they directly influence what comes out of the pockets of consumers. Less competition also means fewer choices for consumers, lower quality, and stifled innovation.

At the end of the day, this creates unfair advantages for dominant companies and leads to lower prices paid to farmers, yet higher prices paid by consumers.

Consolidation is a Bipartisan Issue

For these reasons, tackling consolidation has long emerged as a solution to support both producers and consumers. Efforts have come from both sides of the aisle and, in recent years, have included improved rulemaking under the century-old Packers and Stockyards Act to address anti-competitive practices of large meatpacking companies, bipartisan-led marker bills related to consolidation, as well as presidential actions from the leaders of both major parties. 

In 2021, then-President Biden signed an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy. That EO was revoked in 2025, and shortly thereafter, replaced by a President Trump EO to address the security risks from price fixing and anti-competitive behavior in the food supply chain. Just this past November, the president directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the nation’s largest meatpacking company for potential collusion and price manipulation. 

At around the same time, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced a joint effort with the DOJ to look into whether consolidation is causing high costs for farm inputs. Unfortunately, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also quietly cancelled a program recently that helped states tackle anticompetitive markets in agriculture.

There was a lot of talk about price gouging leading up to the 2024 election, and since then, the rigorous enforcement of our antitrust laws has emerged as a key solution. That’s what’s often missing from efforts to crack down on consolidation, according to Farm Action. Referring to Trump’s recent directive to investigate meatpacking corporations, Farm Action says that “too often, these probes end quietly. For this one to matter, it must end with enforcement… This time, the DOJ must dig deeper into the collusion and political influence that define this industry.”

Opportunities Await in the Next Farm Bill

We also see efforts to combat anti-competitive behavior through legislation. The Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act is a bipartisan piece of legislation that has been reintroduced this year. Introducing sponsor, Mike Lee (R-UT) said, “America’s farmers are being ripped off by federal checkoff programs that take farmers’ money and play favorites with who they serve.”

Checkoff programs are mandatory USDA fees collected to promote commodities like beef, dairy, corn, pork, and soybeans. As we previously shared, checkoff programs contribute to consolidation in our food and farming system because they virtually operate without oversight, encourage production at bigger scales, and often funnel money and power into the hands of corporate lobbyists. 

The federal government has a major say in who benefits the most through federal dollars. We keep saying we need a full farm bill, and this is part of the reason why. The OFF Act is meant to be built into the next farm bill rather than passed on its own. So, until lawmakers take meaningful steps to reauthorize a new farm bill and promote competitive local markets, we will continue to see our agricultural communities suffer.

Antitrust Enforcement Win

The silver lining is that when we do focus on enforcement and antitrust regulation, real wins emerge. Take, for example, the potential Kroger-Albertsons merger of 2024. When the US. District Court for the District of Oregon and other states joined the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in blocking the deal on the basis that it would likely harm competition and lead to higher prices for consumers, they set a precedent. This victory not only kept grocery prices down for the American people but also highlighted some of the tools at our disposal for addressing anti-competitive behavior in the food and farm space.

What You Can Do to Help Combat Consolidation

Consolidation isn’t making things cheaper; it’s making them more expensive for consumers and farmers. As can be seen, efforts to promote fair competition and rein in corporate power come from all sides of the political spectrum, but often fall short of addressing the root causes of the problem. Collaborative strategies that put farmers and other stakeholders at the center of policy proposals are needed, but in the meantime, we can all do our part to help.

So, as you prepare your holiday feasts, look for local holiday markets, ask your favorite retailer to stock more local products, or consider signing up for a winter CSA. Vote with your fork this holiday season. When we all do our part to support our local and small-scale producers, we help take back some of the power from the giant corporations that have ever-reaching control over our food system. That is a gift that keeps on giving.