Antimonopoly Counsel

An antitrust law & policy firm dedicated to helping family farmers, small businesses, and local governments take on corporate power (led by @musharbash_b).

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

Come work with me! @AntimonopolyUS is looking to hire a Staff Attorney to help with developing and bringing unfair-practice, deception, and antitrust cases in Agriculture, Transport, and Government-Serving industries.

The position is part-time. $50-$100 an hour depending on experience. As-needed basis, but expect to require 40-120 hours a month. Initial engagement will be 3 months, with potential for renewal and/or promotion to full-time.

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

"Three dozen corporations now get to decide who gets to farm and how they farm, what food gets produced and sold in this country, and how much we all have to pay for it,” said report author @musharbash_b.
Watch the full webinar: https://t.co/9Z3x0hOIBB

[Arkansas Advocate || bsky @arkansasadvocate.com @ArkAdvocate]

Thirteen farmers on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against executives of bankrupt Arkansas poultry company Cook’s Venture for the financial consequences chicken growers faced when the company abruptly closed in late 2023. #arpx

https://t.co/mc5GCCROWo

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

“This nation’s laws do not permit what these four men did to poultry growers in the Ozarks through the Cooks Venture scam,” said Basel Musharbash of Antimonopoly Counsel, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. “If these growers prevail in court, it will send a powerful message: you cannot make a quick buck by swindling farmers who just want to create a quality product.”

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

6. From November 2023 through January 2024, Defendants conspired with an Arkansas Department of Agriculture official — Patrick Fisk — to have “agents of the state … barge onto farmers’ property without any legal authority, lie to farmers that they were acting pursuant to nonexistent animal-welfare laws, flood the farmers’ poultry houses with a suffocating foam to kill the thousands of birds inside, and leave the rotting carcasses of the dead animals on the ground for farmers to clean up.”

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

2. Our complaint alleges that the defendant executives (Matthew Wadiak, Blake Evans, Tim Singleton, and John Niemann) directed Cooks Venture to grow at a “breakneck pace” in a bid to dominate the fast-growing market for pasture-raised chicken— and to “secure the chicken-growing facilities and services” necessary to pursue that ambition “through a systematic campaign of fraud and deceit against the poultry farmers of Northwest Arkansas.”

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

9. The plaintiff farmers are represented by @AntimonopolyUS, @farmstandorg, the Brad Hendricks Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, and TFPC, a Maine public-interest law firm.

https://t.co/b4mLCS9RUK

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

1. Yesterday, my firm joined with co-counsel to bring a lawsuit on behalf of 13 Arkansas poultry farmers against the principal executive officers of Cooks Venture — the much-hyped “progressive” chicken processor that abruptly shuttered in late 2023, causing financial ruin across the Ozark countryside. 🧵

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

Four agrochemical companies control the vast majority of the U.S. commodity crop seed supply. When farmers have fewer seed suppliers & all use similar/identical seed genetics, it jeopardizes our food security. Visit the Ag Consolidation Data Hub for more: https://t.co/bVyQcuorOB

[American Economic Liberties Project @econliberties]

"Visa's fees have many names ... These fees add up to billions in hidden costs that must be borne by businesses, working families, and the US economy as a whole."

@JusticeATR's Doha Mekki on Visa's private monopoly tax on every debit transaction.👇

[American Economic Liberties Project @econliberties]

"At town hall meetings, @linakhanFTC is swarmed by young people taking selfies, small business owners, union members."

On @60Minutes, @FTC Chair Khan discusses the Kroger-Albertsons merger and fighting monopolies to bring down costs alongside @AOC.👇📺

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

You might think you know how just a few companies control our food supply.

But this chart from @FarmActionUS shows how just four companies control a majority of so many major sectors.

[American Economic Liberties Project @econliberties]

ICYMI: Last week, @FarmActionUS put out comprehensive research by @musharbash_b on market concentration in food & ag.

Shocking, definitive findings on the lack of competition--and need for antitrust attention--across the industry.👇
https://t.co/Oo0iqESzCs

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

A wave of mergers and acquisitions in the crop insurance sector has left farmers with fewer, larger carriers and shifted crop insurance coverage to the largest commodity crop operations. Learn more at our Agriculture Consolidation Data Hub: https://t.co/bVyQcunTZ3

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

Learn more about the report by visiting our Agriculture Consolidation Data Hub: https://t.co/bVyQcunTZ3

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

Join us next week for a briefing on our new report, “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System, featuring U.S. AAG Jonathan Kanter and report author @musharbash_b. Register here:
https://t.co/VBWqe6p898

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

We are glad to see the expanded processing capacity created with these funds. However, we continue to believe that these investments must be paired with stronger antitrust enforcement, P&S Act protections, and government procurement to have a lasting impact.

[Farm Action @FarmActionUS]

Join us for a virtual briefing on our new report, “Kings Over the Necessaries of Life”: Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System, to hear from U.S. AAG Jonathan Kanter and report author @musharbash_b. Register now:
https://t.co/VBWqe6p898