By Greg Henderson
Ag Web
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese on Friday suggested that recent financial statements from America’s large meat processors show the companies used their market power to drive up meat prices and underpay farmers, tripling their own net profit margins since the start of the pandemic.
In an analysis published on the White House website, Deese said meat price are the biggest contributor to the rising cost of groceries, in part because just a few large corporations dominate meat processing. The November Consumer Price Index data demonstrates, Deese claims, that meat prices are still the single largest contributor to the rising cost of food people consume at home. Beef, pork, and poultry price increases make up a quarter of the overall increase in food-at-home prices last month.