Corporate Farming Notes: Regulators Scrutinize Effect of Possible JBS Acquisitions

The Department of Justice is looking more closely at the anti-competitive impact of JBS S.A.’s acquisition of Smithfield Beef’s Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, according to our investigations and several reports in financial trade publications. JBS announced in March their intention to acquire Smithfield Beef Group and National Beef Packing, purchases that would make JBS both the largest beef packer and cattle feeder in the U.S. 

Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, a joint venture between Smithfield Beef and Continental Grain with the capacity to feed over 800,000 head of cattle, would come under the ownership of JBS if the transaction is approved. In conversations with a variety of government agencies looking at the JBS mergers, the ownership of Five Rivers by JBS has been called a “significant area of inquiry.”

Our investigations also lead us to believe that the JBS purchase of National Beef’s Dodge City and Liberal plants in Kansas combined with the JBS Swift plant in Cactus, Texas, as well as the combination of National Beef’s plant in Brawley, California, and Smithfield Beef’s plant in Tolleson, Arizona, are points of concern for the Justice Department.

Thousands of people from across the U.S. have weighed in with the Justice Department in opposition to the JBS - Smithfield Beef - National Beef mergers. We encourage you to keep up the pressure by expressing your opposition to the JBS mergers at http://www.cfra.org/JBS.

On June 30 the Organic Trade Association filed a legal complaint against Ohio’s Department of Agriculture challenging as unconstitutional an emergency rule seeking to prevent milk labeling that tells consumers whether cows producing the milk were treated with rBST, the synthetic growth hormone sold by Monsanto under the brand name Prosilac®.

“The Organic Trade Association firmly believes that consumers have a right to know, and want to know, about the products they purchase, and organic farmers and processors have a right to communicate with their consumers regarding federally regulated organic production practices,” said Caren Wilcox, the Organic Trade Association’s Executive Director.

USDA’s National Organic Standards prohibit the use of hormones to promote growth or increase production in organic milk production.

Contact: John Crabtree, johnc@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1010 for more information.