Fewer wholesalers means higher prices for restaurants and their customers. It also means local farmers and food businesses have fewer market entry points, diminishing variety. Consolidation breeds more consolidation along the supply chain @moreperfectunion.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXXQ...
Sysco wants to be restaurants only option. This deal brings them one step closer to that. Sure, Sysco delivers and RD is "cash & carry," but small restaurants compare prices between the two. Independents already have few options for buying food, this makes that worse.
www.reuters.com/business/sys...
Excellent analysis from @clairek.bsky.social about the power of the big fertilizer firms in crisis moments like this- always happy to talk with her about these kinds of issues!
foodandpower.substack.com/p/fertilizer...
Fertilizer prices are rising as US and Israel’s attack on Iran closes the critical Strait of Hormuz. In theory, nitrogen fertilizer can be made all over the world, so why is the industry so consolidated and vulnerable? I try to answer in Food & Power! open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...
I spoke with meatpacking plant workers and a small meat processing operator about the chilling effect of Operation Metro Surge and other immigration restrictions on Minnesota's meatpacking towns.
The @washingtonmonthly.com Winter Issue wisely recommends Democrats go bold in their proposals to bring down prices.
Our Food Program Manager @clairek.bsky.social examines one of these ideas: public grocery stores. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/22/h...
I live in Minneapolis, and witnessing the ways local businesses are boldly and creatively stepping up to meet community needs as large corporations offer mild statements or facilitate ICE reminds me why antimonopoly policy is central to a healthy democracy.
foodandpower.substack.com/p/wall-stree...
I live in Minneapolis, and witnessing the ways local businesses are boldly and creatively stepping up to meet community needs as large corporations offer mild statements or facilitate ICE reminds me why antimonopoly policy is central to a healthy democracy.
foodandpower.substack.com/p/wall-stree...
A public option for grocery stores, based on the proof of concept provided by the commissary model, could not only vastly improve food access; it could inject more competition into the broader grocery market and bring down food prices for all Americans in the long term. By @clairek.bsky.social
As consumers struggle with rising food prices, an unsealed antitrust suit involving Walmart and Pepsi and a report on Instacart’s algorithmic pricing model demonstrate the ways large food corporations charge different prices to different retailers and consumers. open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...
Just three companies process roughly half of all turkeys and under 1,000 turkey farms raise 70% of all birds in the U.S. Consolidation increases the risk of price-fixing and supply chain disruptions, both of which have come to roost in the turkey industry. www.foodandpower.net/latest/turke...
A large flock of turkeys in an industrial barn, with a text overlay that reads: "bird flu hits a consolidated turkey industry ahead of thanksgiving."
Bird flu has killed 8.7 million turkeys, chickens, and ducks in the U.S. since September, alone. Outbreaks on turkey farms earlier this year plunged the U.S. turkey flock to its lowest size in 40 years. As a result, wholesale prices for whole turkeys surged 75% between October 2024 and October 2025.
Policymakers at all levels have options to make food markets more fair & competitive to stabilize prices for the long run. This includes fair pricing policy like the RobinsonPatman Act, public option grocery stores & wholesalers, and banning surveillance pricing, price-fixing, and exclusive dealing.
Your Thanksgiving guide to fairer food prices, from @clairek.bsky.social and Food & Power: 🦃🌽
www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...
Can always count on @grocerynerd.bsky.social to tell it like it is! A great breakdown of the past 5 years of food price hikes, why profiteering is a driver of these price increases, and policies that would help ensure food is a human right
www.forbes.com/sites/errols...
At Food and Power, @clairek.bsky.social discusses what Mamdani can learn from past and present public grocery projects.
A few cities & small towns opened city-owned grocery stores over the past decade. Several failed because, just like a small private grocery store, they couldn't get good pricing. Part of this problem can be solved with scale, but RPA enforcement would also level the playing field - lessons for NYC!
NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani's public grocery store pilot ruffled feathers, but the idea isn't all that new. American cities used to play a big role in food retail running public markets and the military runs a successful public grocery chain for military families. 🧵
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Apropro of nothing, re-upping this op-ed by Zephyr Teachout on what city government can do to create more fair and affordable grocery markets 👀 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/o...
Rural stagnation is not inevitable; it is a policy choice.
We can begin to fix it at the state-level - with anti-monopoly legislation and by supporting fair competition in agriculture. More from @clairek.bsky.social in our inaugural journal: www.statesforum.org/journal/issu...
President Trump’s plan to import more beef from Argentina hit a nerve with ranchers, not only because it sunk cattle futures, but because U.S. ranchers already feel threatened by unlabeled imports and the powerful multinational packers that profit off of them. substack.com/home/post/p-...
ICYMI - Among the many shutdown casualties is the Packers and Stockyards division. It's the latest blow to ag antitrust enforcement after USDA canceled its Farmer Seed Liaison cooperative agreement early last month.
I raise a few questions about McDonald's commitment to regen ag here. @nsac-sustainableag.bsky.social puts this initiative in context, including major cuts to #USDA staff managing programs that could help farmers. Great reporting by @clairek.bsky.social www.foodandpower.net/latest/mcdon...
Thanks to @marketplace.org for covering this big change to the Farm Bill!
Further, just as the OBBB added work requirements for SNAP recipients, it eased requirements that farmers prove they're actively engaged in farming in order to receive federal farm subsidies and made it easier for larger farms to receive more subsidies www.foodandpower.net/latest/obbb-...
This has massive implications for feeding low-income families and for hundreds of smaller sustainable ag programs that the OBBB left behind. @nsac-sustainableag.bsky.social sustainableagriculture.net/blog/release...
The OBBB changed a lot of important things, including the way Congress passes food and farm policy. By reauthorizing much of the Farm Bill through the OBBB, including massive SNAP cuts, there's little incentive for Congress to pass a traditional Farm Bill, now or maybe ever again.
Excited to collaborate for the first time with Successful Farming, thanks to @thefern.org !
At first the Trump admin said farms & food plants would not be targets for immigration raids, but as pressures mount to meet aggressive deportation targets, that's beginning to change. This threatens US food security and approx. 850,000 immigrant families who have worked on US farms for decades
Read the full story, a collaboration with Successful Farming, at thefern.org/2025/09/is-f...
@clairek.bsky.social
