Corporate monopolies exercise a lot of power in U.S. markets.

They dominate many industries, including beef.

“You have cattle ranchers going broke while consumers are paying all-time record prices for beef,” Bill Bullard, head of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, says.

In ways you see, and don’t:

“It’s failed consumers on one end of the supply chain, and it’s failed the American family farmer and rancher on the other,” Bullard says.

Today, On Point: A discussion on monopolies and meat processing kicks off our special series More than money: The cost of monopolies in America.

Guests

Bill Bullard, head of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, an advocacy group. His organization is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that accuses meatpackers of manipulating prices.

Claire Kelloway, program manager for fair food and farming systems at the Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit anti-monopoly organization. (@clairekelloway)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. Author of theAge of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America and editor of Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America.(@JackBeattyNPR)

Jeanie Alderson, fourth generation rancher from Birney, Montana. Member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, a grassroots conservation and family agriculture group.

Sarah Little, spokeswoman for the North American Meat Institute, a Washington lobbying group representing packers and processors.

Aaron Metz, fourth generation rancher from the Badlands of Western North Dakota.

Show Transcript

Part I

MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: There’s a small Montana town that’s as small as it gets, population 110 to be exact. No stores or restaurants. The only business in town is the Post Office. But, it does have lots of grassland. And …

JEANIE ALDERSON: In a state like Montana, there’s more cows than people.