Antitrust Laws

Only a few companies dominate most links in America’s food chain. These firms sell the equipment and supplies farmers use every day, buy the crops and livestock from the farms, and process and sell food to consumers. These companies are the bottleneck between 2 million farmers and more than 300 million consumers and can raise costs and lower prices for farmers while reducing choices and raising prices for consumers.

Many of the fundamental questions Americans are asking about their food system can be traced back to the structure of the food industry and dramatic changes that have occurred over the past several decades. For example, when consumers and farmers want more local or sustainably produced food to be available in their supermarket aisles, they run up ...