By Andrew Rechenberg
Powerful 'Big Ag' - not small farmers and ranchers or even tariffs - is the root cause of the food-affordability crisis
America's food market is rigged. A handful of massive corporations are using inflation and global shocks to cover up their price gouging.
The Trump administration recently announced a $12 billion package of &#34;bridge payments&#34; for America's farmers. It's an acknowledgment of how broken America's food system has become.
But any payment is only a bandage for a deeply rigged market. It directs $11 billion in payments to Big Ag row-crop producers. That won't confront the structural failures driving up America's food prices. And it leaves behind the local farmers and ranchers currently getting squeezed by consolidation throughout the U.S. agricultural industry.
Food prices are soaring right now. Go to any grocery store in America and you'll see the same thing - prices are off the charts. Ground beef averages more than $6 a pound. Egg prices have fallen recently but have been above $5 a dozen for much of 2025. People across the country are staggering through the supermarket checkout line.
Tariffs are not the reason your grocery bill has exploded.
Now ask yourself: Who's getting rich from this?
You'll hear some pundits blame tariffs, or even farmers, for rising food prices. But that's nonsense. The truth is that America's food market is rigged. A handful of massive corporations are using inflation and global shocks to cover up their price gouging.
Tariffs are not the reason your grocery bill has exploded. Nonfuel import prices are only up 0.8% this year, and import prices for food have actually fallen 1%. That means food import prices are going down even as grocery prices keep going up.
What's really driving this is corporate pricing power.
Look at the beef industry. Four companies - Tyson Foods (TSN), JBS (JBS), Cargill and National Beef - control more than 80% of cattle processing. U.S. Department of Agriculture data show sharply widening spreads between cattle prices and wholesale beef as packers tighten their grip. As a result, America's ranchers are getting squeezed even as big meatpackers are charging consumers more than ever.
Consider, too, that the U.S. cattle herd has collapsed to just 86.7 million head - the lowest level since 1951. And meatpacker JBS just paid $83.5 million to settle claims that the major packers have worked to suppress cattle prices and inflate profits.
Or consider eggs. During the avian flu outbreak, millions of hens were destroyed across the country. However, Cal-Maine Foods (CALM), which supplies about 20% of America's eggs, reported no flu losses - yet still tripled its profits. Egg prices soared, and Cal-Maine simply took advantage. Now the company is under Department of Justice investigation for its pricing practices.
When a few companies control an entire market, they turn every crisis into an excuse to raise prices.
This is what happens when a few companies control an entire market: They turn every crisis into an excuse to raise prices on families struggling to afford food. It's not just meat and eggs. From cereal to soda, snacks to produce, the pattern is identical. The top U.S. food companies have increased profits by 51% since the COVID-19 pandemic began - not because their costs skyrocketed, but because they saw an opening and took advantage. They shrank packages, raised prices and blamed &#34;inflation.&#34; But it wasn't inflation. It was a coordinated corporate feeding frenzy.
Meanwhile, America's farmers and ranchers are being squeezed out of the food system they built. Today, farmers receive only about 16 cents of every dollar Americans spend on food - one of the lowest shares in modern history. The rest goes to the corporate processors, distributors and retail giants that have constructed monopolies within America's food market.
The results are evident. Young farmers can't afford land. Midsize ranches are vanishing. Overall, more than 312,000 family farms have disappeared since 1997 as Big Ag corporations and private-equity firms buy up the countryside.
What's stunning is that, despite record imports, Americans' grocery bills aren't going down. In fact, the U.S. agricultural trade deficit hit an all-time high in 2025. But retail food prices still rose faster than overall inflation. This tells us that imports aren't being used to lower grocery bills. Instead, they're being used to undercut domestic American producers while corporations keep consumer prices high.
This isn't just bad economics. It's an affordability crisis. When one disruption - a disease outbreak, a port delay, a foreign crisis - can send prices soaring, America's large agricultural corporations see it as a price-gouging opportunity. Unless something changes, we'll continue to see this play out again and again.
Washington must break the grip of the corporate cartels that have hijacked America's food system.
This isn't sustainable. And it's not what the American people deserve.
Supporting domestic American food production does not mean backing Big Ag. Instead, it means standing with local farmers and ranchers that have long provided the foundation of our food system - not the Big Ag corporations that are bleeding it dry.
Washington must break the grip of the corporate cartels that have hijacked America's food system. That means restoring real competition, enforcing antitrust laws and investing in rural America. It's past time to put people over profit - and food on the table - by standing up for America's local farmers and against large corporate price gouging.
Andrew Rechenberg is an economist at the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
More: Trump says affordability is a 'hoax,' but consumers should expect more pain in 2026
Also read: Rising prices and weight-loss drugs are changing the way we eat - and food companies are racing to keep up
-Andrew Rechenberg
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones &amp; Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-23-25 1606ET

CALM

<p>America's food market is dominated by a few large corporations, leading to price gouging and soaring grocery bills. Despite falling import prices, retail food prices rise due to corporate control. Farmers and ranchers are squeezed out, receiving only 16 cents per food dollar. The system favors corporate profits over affordability, creating an economic crisis. Washington must address these monopolies to ensure fair pricing and support local producers.</p>

America's food market is rigged. Look who's getting rich while many of us struggle with grocery bills