Posted on 02/24/2026 3:26:48 PM PST by bitt
The O’Keefe Media Group went undercover at CattleCon in Nashville, Tennessee, and exposed how Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef secretly control America’s beef market.
In November, President Trump said cattle prices were falling while beef prices kept rising and launched an investigation into price manipulation.
Trump directed the DOJ to investigate the meat packing companies who are driving up the prices through illicit collusion, price fixing and price manipulation.
pic.twitter.com/qybOyWN2bl
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 7, 2025
The O’Keefe Media Group went undercover at CattleCon and ranchers spilled the beans on how the “Big Four” control the beef industry.
“Our team spoke directly with ranchers and industry partners, documenting firsthand how the “Big Four” dominate the market and impact pricing,” James O’Keefe said.
“Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef control most of the U.S. beef industry, raising serious questions about who really sets the price. So when you see higher prices at the grocery store, it’s worth asking why,” O’Keefe said.
“This may explain why your steak keeps costing more,” he said.
“They [Big Four] are buying like all the companies in the United States… so they don’t have competition,” one insider said.
“They [Big Four] can knock you out of this industry in two seconds,” another said.
“They [Big Four] closed all the markets — all the markets are theirs in Brazil and now in the U.S.”
WATCH:
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
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There should be strict laws against price fixing.
Place blame on GOVERNMENT
massive over-regulation always favors the biggest companies.
What was done can be undone, as we’ve all been witnessing.
Anyone remember reading of 90 years ago when STEAK was the cheapest food on the market? The FDR got the bright idea of buying up millions of head of cattle and hogs, shooting and burying them creating a shortage to get the price up Up UP!
And that meat had to be buried, not given to the starving poor in the depression.
Ten years later, those same agriculture agents who shot the cattle were begging farmers and ranchers to increase meat production for the War Effort.
Lok at the good side of regulations. at least the steaks you get will not taste like wild onions the cattle have been feeding on.
“Place blame on GOVERNMENT”
This.
I heard a USDA report that cattle have been staying four times longer in finishing feedlots than normal. The report didn’t say why, but it looks like the beef packers are colluding to drive down purchase prices and restrict the supply of butchered beef to raise wholesale prices.
Farmers don’t like to keep cattle in feedlots once sale weight is reached.
I do believe some of the price rise does have to do with the low total number of cattle, but this blockage in the supply line has nothing to do with that.
I think it was the late 60s (someone may know the exact date) That they started requiring UDSA inspectors at every slaughterhouse and small operation.
After that, the small local slaughter houses and packing operations fell like dominoes.
Add in a few hedge funds, and some globalism and the destruction was completed.
And as Thomas Massie explained in a documentary, he cannot butcher a cow and sell steaks. He must sell you no less than a quarter of a beef. This also kills their ability to compete.
I remember as a kid, the butcher shop at the grocer was an actual butcher, cutting steaks, grinding burger, etc. Now it all comes from a plant, and the butcher shop is just a cold display rack. They butchers there now are bereft of knowledge.
Its a vicious cycle since the big companies control the politicians that pass legislation that helps big companies (so they have more money to buy more politicians)
What you posted is delusional, border line insane and unbelievable! But most unfortunately 100% correct.
FDR's policies though well intended actually prolonged the depression. FDR was really a quasi Marxist but definitely a socialist.
The FREE MARKET will quickly correct financial idiocy far more quickly than can government becoming a directing agent of recovery.
Chinese companies own almost all of the meat processing companies in the USA. This should never have been allowed to happen.
There are still some in-house butchers. Wal-Mart has a few that still legitimately ply the trade and quite a few decent stand-alone butcher shops. The smaller ones dont have to have a regular FDA Inspector but do have routine inspections.
That is the guy who gave us this problem in the first place.
I’m shocked! Shocked I tell you l🙄
I just bought a half cow for just over $4 a pound hanging weight from a local farmer. Who knows what was done to the beef in the store that has good chance of coming from overseas. Who knows what it was feed or treated with.
The big packers are buying from overseas and forcing the farmers here to compete with a lower cost import. A lower cost import with shady history that may be good or bad.
Break them up like we did Standard Oil
Immigration and the IRS need to invade their factories and check the immigration status of all the employees.
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