The Department of Justice Antitrust Division is expanding its efforts to increase criminal enforcement within the ag sector. South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke sees this as an important step toward fair competition in the marketplace. Consolidation in the meatpacking industry is a focus, but Sombke says anticompetitive practices are seen throughout agriculture. “In the fertilizer business, all the crop inputs, it’s in the seed business, it’s in the fuel business; everything farmers buy has been consolidated and manipulated,” said Sombke. “The meat industry is closer to something that we can do something about quickly and efficiently. Without enforcing these types of laws, the future of family farming agriculture is leaving us and it’s leaving us in a hurry.”
