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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20647818
McDonald’s has some beef with today’s largest meat packers.
The fast food giant is suing the U.S. meat industry’s “Big Four” — Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef Packing Company — and their subsidiaries, alleging a price fixing scheme for beef specifically. In a federal complaint, filed Friday in New York, McDonald’s accused the companies of anticompetitive measures such as collectively limiting supply to boost prices and charge “illegally inflated” amounts.
This collusion caused the beef market to become “a monopoly in which direct purchasers were forced to buy at prices dictated by (the meat packers),” McDonald’s suit reads — later noting that the injury it has sustained as one of those buyers is what “antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”
McDonald’s alleges that the meat packers’ conspiracy dates back nearly a decade, at least as early as January 2015, and continues today. Its suit argues these companies’ actions violate the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust law.
Beef is expensive because of the drought. Remember climate change?
When there is a drought, there is less water for cows, and grass feed. When there is less food and water for cows, they can’t survive. Which leads to number 2.
When cows don’t thrive, their numbers drop. That means less beef that can be sold in volume. Which leads to number 3.
When there is less beef to make profits from, then prices must increase to maintain the survivability of ranchers and the beef industry, as well as demand putting pressures on a smaller supply.
Causation: noun — the action of causing something.
This lawsuit reminds me of the ignorant customer who feels the beef industry is scrounging them. McDonald’s needs to pay their workers 50 dollars an hour.
US port strike disrupts hamburger supplies, frozen seafood | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-port-strike-disrupts-hamburger-supplies-frozen-seafood-2024-10-02/