Food deserts and high grocery prices spring from a consolidated food chain. This piece by Claire and Sandeep explains how we can enforce the laws to fight back.
"The entire U.S. food system is remarkably consolidated, exploitative and fragile."
In @nytopinion, @clairekelloway & @sandeepvaheesan explain what's gone wrong with our food system & the big changes needed to fix it. https://t.co/CS3g15M2sl
Thrilled to publish this piece with @clairekelloway on one major cause of high food prices--market concentration--and a solution to it--breaking up and regulating agribusinesses
In the @nytopinion today with @sandeepvaheesan making the case for genuine antitrust action in the food system, not just rhetoric. https://t.co/oCR2JUXHP9
AG @keithellison and @LSPnow highlighting the dairy crisis driving small producers out of business and concentrating production on fewer, larger farms! 👏 https://t.co/p7U1mbBoC0
Fossil fuel price shocks are redistribution shocks. The rich reap the windfall profits and the many are burdened by cost.
“We find that 50% of the profits in the oil and gas industry went to the top 1% richest Americans, whereas only 1% of those profits went to the bottom 50%.”
Great to see our research covered by @NPR!
Disaster capitalism on steroids
Spiking fertilizer prices have brought back the specter of a new world food crisis.
Meanwhile the stocks of a handful of companies that control the fertilizer market are surging.
Fewer wholesalers means higher prices for restaurants and higher prices for customers. It also means local farmers and food businesses have fewer market entry points, diminishing variety. Consolidation breeds more consolidation along the supply chain. https://t.co/yNomoBsR6Z
Sysco wants to be restaurants only option, and this deal brings them one step closer to that. Sure, Sysco delivers while RD is "cash and carry," but independent restaurants do compare prices between the two. Small restaurants will be even more cornered if this deal goes through.
Notable deal in distribution this morning. Sysco is buying Restaurant Depot for $29 billion. Plans to expand RD more aggressively. It gives Sysco a huge entry into cash-and-carry and a large number of independent restaurant customers.
https://t.co/rgs7nSUyV7
Fertilizer prices are rising as US and Israel’s war on Iran closes the critical Strait of Hormuz. In theory, nitrogen fertilizer can be made all over the world, so why is the industry so consolidated and vulnerable? https://t.co/V9dDvbcces
1. Tim Muris, who held top roles at the FTC in the 1970s-80s and 2000s, has teamed up with the Competitive Enterprise Institute on a new effort to discredit and bury the Robinson-Patman Act.
Muris has a record of inventing history to support his agenda. Here are a few examples.
In @foodandpower, Minnesota resident @clairekelloway observes community-based enterprises defending democracy while big corporations sit on the sidelines. https://t.co/dFb4T5RJC0
I live in Minneapolis. Witnessing the ways local businesses are boldly & creatively stepping up to meet community needs while large corporations offer mild statements or facilitate ICE reminds me why antimonopoly policy is central to a healthy democracy
https://t.co/p7RT8U6eFW
While small businesses have been on the front lines of protecting their communities and demanding an end to the assault on Minnesotans basic rights, the largest corporations in the state sat silent for weeks and only now have offered this.
As consumers struggle with rising food prices, an unsealed antitrust suit involving Walmart & Pepsi and a report on Instacart’s algorithmic pricing demonstrate the ways large food corporations charge different prices to different retailers and consumers
https://t.co/0c7DcyUrPG