‘An industry gone bankrupt’: Weld County lamb producers to feel impact of Mountain States Rosen closure

by Anne Delaney Source: The Greeley Tribune When the Mountain States Rosen lamb plant in Greeley announced its closure last month, the transaction was projected to have a major effect on the lamb industry nationwide. The implications of the plant shutdown are already being felt in Weld County where as many as 300,000 lambs per year are kept on feedlots. Feedlots are where the lambs are fattened up before moving to slaughter at Mountain States Rosen, which was the Read More …

DOJ asked to investigate JBS lamb facility acquisition

by Jacqui Fatka Source: Feedstuffs JBS USA Holdings Inc. closed on its purchase of the rancher-owned Mountain States Rosen lamb processing facility in Greeley, Colo., but a number of congressional leaders from five western states as well as industry groups have asked U.S. Department of Justice assistant attorney general Makan Delrahim to investigate the acquisition. The COVID-19 pandemic severely damaged foodservice sales and consumer demand for American lamb, as foodservice dine-in sales account for more than 50% of Read More …

OCM Calls for Department of Justice to Halt JBS Purchase of Mountain States Cooperative

Click Here to Read OCM’s Letter to DOJ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 31, 2020   Media Contact: Ben Gotschall bgotschall@competitivemarkets.com 402-540-1342   OCM Calls for Department of Justice to Halt JBS Purchase Ag Group cites possible antitrust violations and calls for investigation LINCOLN, NE: Today the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), calling for the DOJ to stop the Read More …

DOJ MAKES STATEMENT OF INTEREST IN DFA CASE

by Nicole Heslip Source: Brownfield Ag News The Department of Justice has filed a brief in an ongoing Dairy Farmers of America federal court case with Northeast dairy farmers. The Department says the cooperative’s actions are inconsistent with legal protections for co-ops in the Capper-Volstead Act and is not safeguarded from antitrust laws as DFA argues. Ben Gotschall with the Organization for Competitive Markets tells Brownfield the purpose of agriculture antitrust laws is to protect producers and they’re pleased to Read More …

DOJ Antitrust Division Weighs in on Farmers’ Suit Against DFA

by Chris Clayton Source: Progressive Farmer Ag Policy Blog The U.S. Department of Justice has come down on the side of a group of more than 100 dairy farmers in a federal lawsuit against the country’s largest dairy cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America. As initially reported by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, a group of 116 Northeastern dairy farmers rejected to take part in a prior lawsuit settlement against DFA in 2016 and instead pressed their case Read More …

BREAKING: Department of Justice Files Amicus Brief in Dairy Farmers of America Lawsuit

On July 27th, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against Dairy Farmers of America, the United States’ largest dairy cooperative. The lawsuit, filed in Vermont U.S. District Court, alleges that DFA and other cooperatives agreed not to compete for each other’s farmer-members, conspired to share payment information in order to discourage competition and depress prices, and maintained those low prices market-wide by entering into supply agreements with Dean Foods Read More …