The Biden Administration recently announced moves to break up consolidation in the meatpacking industry and bring meat prices back under control.

Monday, the Biden Administration announced it will invest $1 billion to expand independent meat processors, increase competition in the market, and reduce prices for consumers by increasing options farmers have to sell.

In America, four companies dominate supply in the industry, controlling 85% of beef production, 54% of poultry production, and 70% of pork production.

Those four companies are Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef, all of which have major plants in Iowa.

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J.D. Scholten, former congressional candidate and senior advisor for the American Economic Liberties Project, said the suggestions are a good start, but they won’t go far without efforts to break up the big monopolies.

“It seems like they’re leaning in heavily on this $1 billion to local processors and independent processors,” he said. “That’s good, but unless we break up the monopolies I feel it’s a waste.”

This is mainly because the bigger companies can still dominate the market and there’s nothing stopping them from buying the smaller processors.

Scholten said he does credit the administration with calling attention to this issue and recognizing its importance. In fact, he said this is the first time he’s heard a president emphasize this angle of the market.

“This is the first time in my generation, in my lifetime, that the president has talked about the importance of competition,” he said. “And that’s great. We need to continue to push for more, otherwise it’s not fixing the problem of market consolidation.”

One problem, Scholten said, is the lack of money available in the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the Antitrust Division.