"The entire U.S. food system is remarkably consolidated, exploitative and fragile." In @nytopinion.nytimes.com, @clairek.bsky.social & Sandeep Vaheesan explain what's gone wrong with our food system & the big changes needed to fix it. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/o...

Excellent guest essay in the Times about the root cause of rising grocery prices.

Thrilled to write for the @nytopinion.nytimes.com today with Sandeep Vaheesan, making the case for genuine antitrust action in the food system, not just rhetoric www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/o...

Sysco wants to be restaurants only option. This deal brings them one step closer to that. Sure, Sysco delivers and RD is "cash & carry," but small restaurants compare prices between the two. Independents already have few options for buying food, this makes that worse. www.reuters.com/business/sys...

Excellent analysis from @clairek.bsky.social about the power of the big fertilizer firms in crisis moments like this- always happy to talk with her about these kinds of issues! foodandpower.substack.com/p/fertilizer...

Fertilizer prices are rising as US and Israel’s attack on Iran closes the critical Strait of Hormuz. In theory, nitrogen fertilizer can be made all over the world, so why is the industry so consolidated and vulnerable? I try to answer in Food & Power! open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...

I spoke with meatpacking plant workers and a small meat processing operator about the chilling effect of Operation Metro Surge and other immigration restrictions on Minnesota's meatpacking towns.

The @washingtonmonthly.com Winter Issue wisely recommends Democrats go bold in their proposals to bring down prices. Our Food Program Manager @clairek.bsky.social examines one of these ideas: public grocery stores. washingtonmonthly.com/2026/01/22/h...

I live in Minneapolis, and witnessing the ways local businesses are boldly and creatively stepping up to meet community needs as large corporations offer mild statements or facilitate ICE reminds me why antimonopoly policy is central to a healthy democracy. foodandpower.substack.com/p/wall-stree...

I live in Minneapolis, and witnessing the ways local businesses are boldly and creatively stepping up to meet community needs as large corporations offer mild statements or facilitate ICE reminds me why antimonopoly policy is central to a healthy democracy. foodandpower.substack.com/p/wall-stree...

A public option for grocery stores, based on the proof of concept provided by the commissary model, could not only vastly improve food access; it could inject more competition into the broader grocery market and bring down food prices for all Americans in the long term. By @clairek.bsky.social

As consumers struggle with rising food prices, an unsealed antitrust suit involving Walmart and Pepsi and a report on Instacart’s algorithmic pricing model demonstrate the ways large food corporations charge different prices to different retailers and consumers. open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...

Bird flu has killed 8.7 million turkeys, chickens, and ducks in the U.S. since September, alone. Outbreaks on turkey farms earlier this year plunged the U.S. turkey flock to its lowest size in 40 years. As a result, wholesale prices for whole turkeys surged 75% between October 2024 and October 2025.

Policymakers at all levels have options to make food markets more fair & competitive to stabilize prices for the long run. This includes fair pricing policy like the RobinsonPatman Act, public option grocery stores & wholesalers, and banning surveillance pricing, price-fixing, and exclusive dealing.

Your Thanksgiving guide to fairer food prices, from @clairek.bsky.social and Food & Power: 🦃🌽 www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...

Can always count on @grocerynerd.bsky.social to tell it like it is! A great breakdown of the past 5 years of food price hikes, why profiteering is a driver of these price increases, and policies that would help ensure food is a human right www.forbes.com/sites/errols...

At Food and Power, @clairek.bsky.social discusses what Mamdani can learn from past and present public grocery projects.

NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani's public grocery store pilot ruffled feathers, but the idea isn't all that new. American cities used to play a big role in food retail running public markets and the military runs a successful public grocery chain for military families. 🧵 substack.com/home/post/p-...

Apropro of nothing, re-upping this op-ed by Zephyr Teachout on what city government can do to create more fair and affordable grocery markets 👀 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/o...

Rural stagnation is not inevitable; it is a policy choice. We can begin to fix it at the state-level - with anti-monopoly legislation and by supporting fair competition in agriculture. More from @clairek.bsky.social in our inaugural journal: www.statesforum.org/journal/issu...

President Trump’s plan to import more beef from Argentina hit a nerve with ranchers, not only because it sunk cattle futures, but because U.S. ranchers already feel threatened by unlabeled imports and the powerful multinational packers that profit off of them. substack.com/home/post/p-...

ICYMI - Among the many shutdown casualties is the Packers and Stockyards division. It's the latest blow to ag antitrust enforcement after USDA canceled its Farmer Seed Liaison cooperative agreement early last month.

I raise a few questions about McDonald's commitment to regen ag here. @nsac-sustainableag.bsky.social puts this initiative in context, including major cuts to #USDA staff managing programs that could help farmers. Great reporting by @clairek.bsky.social www.foodandpower.net/latest/mcdon...

The OBBB changed a lot of important things, including the way Congress passes food and farm policy. By reauthorizing much of the Farm Bill through the OBBB, including massive SNAP cuts, there's little incentive for Congress to pass a traditional Farm Bill, now or maybe ever again.

At first the Trump admin said farms & food plants would not be targets for immigration raids, but as pressures mount to meet aggressive deportation targets, that's beginning to change. This threatens US food security and approx. 850,000 immigrant families who have worked on US farms for decades

Read the full story, a collaboration with Successful Farming, at thefern.org/2025/09/is-f... @clairek.bsky.social

Kraft Heinz lost 60% of its stock value since merging, and now it wants to split in search of growth. Getting too big and PE cost-cutting set Kraft Heinz back, but it still dominates many segments of the grocery store, and this split won’t change that. substack.com/home/post/p-...

With lots of buzz about Mamdani's public grocery pilot, Zephyr Teachout urges mayors to *also* use competition policy to bring down food prices and help local grocers and farmers: ending big box favoritism, commercial bribery, and price gouging www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/o...

Cutting SNAP while widening loopholes for Big Ag: hypocritical and "will drive farm consolidation and raise land prices, hurting smaller farms and young farmers." ✏️ @clairek.bsky.social

I recently contributed an essay to the @statesforum.bsky.social's inaugural policy journal on tools that states can use to combat corporate price gouging of rural peoples' basic needs: groceries, healthcare, and equipment repair statesforum.org/journal/issu...

Surreal - I was part of the team at @thefern.org that won a James Beard Media award last weekend! 🎉

In this episode of Gravy, a podcast from the Southern Foodways Alliance, reporter Boyce Upholt digs into a problem that extends well beyond the Gulf Coast: how for decades imported seafood has undercut local prices, effectively killing local fishing fleets in places like Biloxi, Mississippi.

New study from Yale on SNAP work requirements in CT: -Work requirements cut enrollment by 25% -Older, sicker people more likely to lose benefits -After ending work requirements, enrollment didn't return to previous levels tobin.yale.edu/research/sna...

Kudos to @clairek.bsky.social and Food & Power blog from the Open Market Institute for it deep look at the even more deeply flawed #MAHA commission report. The conclusion: behind every potentially good idea is an actually policy of Trump that undermines it. Corporate power still rules in #ag.

NEW: 🚢⚓️ Our transportation policy analyst Arnav Rao has a big, new report out today on why U.S. maritime power declined - and how to effectively revive it. Read the report & his corresponding piece in @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

Fascinating look at how states are trying to deal with an emerging consumer issue.

"The primary conceit [in Abundance] is that in many areas, the private sector is ready to invest—and to invest big—if politicians would only lift public barriers standing in their way. There is little evidence that is true."

Grocery chains collect large swaths of data on customers’ location, past purchases, demographics, and web-browsing history to offer targeted advertising, promotions, and prices. As pricing gets more private, shoppers will have a harder time comparing prices and discerning what is truly a deal.

It's here!! @ronmknox.bsky.social's super rad antimonopoly ZINE! It's a concise compelling tale of how people power can stand up to our modern day robber barons - for sharing far and wide

I'm grateful to work with the stellar editors at @thefern.org and totally humbled and honored to be among their writing cohort nominated for a James Beard Media Award!

Cal-Maine has made millions while everyday Americans pay record prices for eggs. The company recently announced that it will use these profits to acquire an egg patty maker and buy out stock from its founding family, transferring wealth from the many to the few. open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...

Get the latest on the ways in which tariffs and budget cuts are impacting export-oriented and small farmers in Food & Power from @clairek.bsky.social. foodandpower.substack.com/p/usda-cuts-...

Trump's USDA just announced that it will let more meatpacking plants get waivers to increase their line speeds. Speeds are already unsafe for workers, as Ted Genoways reveals in his latest investigation for @motherjones.com and @thefern.org www.motherjones.com/food/2025/03...

Terry was scammed out of most of his savings and was supposed to get his money back—until Donald Trump and Elon Musk gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Part one:

President Trump has ousted the two Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Full story to come. See their statements below:

#antirtrustradar HE DID IT. Trump illegally fired the two Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter.

The CFPB protects all Americans, including rural Americans, who struggle with medical debt at higher rates and get targeted by unique financial predators (like mobile home lenders, whom the CFPB was suing, until recently). My latest: www.foodandpower.net/latest/cfpb-...

Trump tells US farmers to grow for the home market Then he cancels local food purchase programs He says he 'loves farmers' but this latest move only benefits giant food corporations www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

This is the best history I’ve seen explaining how a few egg companies are now able to coerce competitors to keep egg prices high, when a few decades prior egg production was highly regional and actually responsive to changes in supply/demand

NEW: @clairek.bsky.social covers a new report from Diane Standaert & @healfoodalliance.bsky.social that breaks down the many ways that the loss of federal financial protections from the #CFPB will harm rural communities and farmers, in particular. foodandpower.substack.com/p/how-guttin...