Meatpacking Industry Concentration and Competition

Current understanding

Federal policy efforts to address concentration and market power among the largest U.S. meatpackers (beef, pork, poultry), where a handful of firms control most slaughter and processing capacity. Proposals in this space typically aim to restore competition through structural remedies, enforcement, or procurement rules, with the stated goal of lowering consumer meat prices and improving prices received by producers; effects on farmers, consumers, and food prices depend on specific mechanisms. Status: active legislative interest in the 119th Congress, including HR9744 (introduced).

Evidence log

• 2026-07-16 — To restore competition in the meatpacking industry by reducing excessive concentration and market power and ultimately reduce prices for American consumers, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with food-supply-chain-resiliency: Meatpacking concentration is a recurring choke point in food supply chain resiliency discussions; competition remedies are proposed as a structural resiliency lever. (novelty: 2)

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