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As meat prices continue to rise, Biden administration takes aim at Big Chicken

The government blames high food prices on pandemic profiteering in the meat industry and aims to prosecute poultry conglomerates for price fixing, wage fixing and other antitrust infractions

By
October 4, 2021 at 11:48 a.m. EDT
Virgil Shockley’s chicken houses near Snow Hill, Md. grows birds for industry giant Tyson Foods. The Biden administration is looking into consolidation and anticompetitive practices in the poultry industry. (Lois Raimondo/The Washington Post)
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As consumers chafe at growing food price inflation, the Biden administration is pointing a finger at some of the country’s largest meat companies, suggesting pandemic profiteering may be responsible for the steep rise in the prices of beef, pork and poultry.

Recently, the prices for beef, pork and poultry have all increased far more than other kinds of food, accounting for as much as half of price inflation at grocery stores.