The Big Beef Four — Cargill, JBS (Brazil), Tyson Foods, and National Beef — control 80 to 85 percent of U.S. fed‑cattle slaughter capacity and boxed‑beef sales.
By Peter Navarro | THE HILL | December 8, 2025
OPINION:
Joe Biden and the Democrats drove beef inflation to about six percent a year—more than twice the rate during the Trump years. There were many reasons why.
Biden’s Green New Deal policies drove up the cost of fuel, feed, and fertilizer. His “eat soy” range war against ranchers restricted access to grazing lands. His drunken-sailor spending fueled historic food-price inflation.
But all of these drivers were amplified — and exploited — by extreme market concentration in the beef industry.
The Big Beef Four — Cargill, JBS (Brazil), Tyson Foods, and National Beef — control 80 to 85 percent of U.S. fed‑cattle slaughter capacity and boxed‑beef sales. That’s more than twice the level where economists start worrying about monopolistic price gouging.