Tyson Foods Helped Create the Meat Crisis It Warns Against
- Outlook for shortages is ‘100% a symptom of consolidation’
- Three companies sell about two-thirds of America’s beef
A Tyson Foods Inc. facility in Lexington, Nebraska, U.S.
Photographer: Dan Brouillette/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
John Tyson, the billionaire whose family business reigns as the largest meat processor in the U.S., took out ads in national newspapers to complain about a “breaking” food supply chain.
No one would argue that supplies aren’t an issue right now. Even Donald Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act to secure meat production. But the roots of this problem go back to decades of consolidation that Tyson’s own company helped lead. Tyson Foods Inc. and its top two rivals -- JBS SA and Cargill Inc. -- control today about two-thirds of America’s beef, and the large bulk of it gets processed in a few dozen giant plants. Pork and chicken are similarly dominated.