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...

Instead of reading this not-so-informative/not-much-related to egg prices interview, go check out @clairek.bsky.social Food and Power who gets right down to the real issue: corporate control over our agriculture and food system. www.foodandpower.net/latest/egg-p...

Facts are, as much as cancelling subscriptions may be an answer to align morals with habits, it's not going to undo Bezos' power. His monopolies are far too sprawling, and far too entrenched. @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social is right: Amazon's businesses cannot stand as they are.

Industry consolidation makes both the risks of avian flu and egg price hikes worse. Learn more from @clairek.bsky.social foodandpower.substack.com/p/if-you-car...

"First, massive, consolidated egg farms help spread disease and put more birds at risk of infection, and second, big egg corporations can abuse their market power to manipulate prices" Excellent analysis from @clairek.bsky.social on the costs of corporate concentration in the egg industry

If you can about record egg prices, you need to care about corporate consolidation. www.foodandpower.net/latest/egg-p...

Congratulations to our @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social for publishing this important new book on the history of how a few giant firms came to dominate the farm sector today! If you care about how we got here, and the future of food, this is a must-read.

I'm hearing now that *every* technologist CFPB hired to investigate Big Tech was fired this evening. That's somewhere between 70-100 people. wired.com/story/dozens-of-cfpb-workers-terminated-in-after-hours-firing-blitz/

US farmers sold $2 billion of food to USAID. Not any more. - US farmers provided 41% of food delivered by USAID - $340M of purchases/shipments are now paused. Over 680,000 tonnes. - Food stranded in Houston - Aid stopped in transit. The world’s poor starving, food rotting & US farmers screwed.

In Food & Power, @clairek.bsky.social has the latest on Kroger & Albertsons post failed merger. READ: www.foodandpower.net/latest/whats...

Last year, we talked to air traffic controllers and found out they’re working 10-hour shifts, 6 days a week, with mandatory overtime. Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce and push to privatize air traffic control could make matters even worse. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyN6...

NEW: Nutrition programs SNAP and WIC will NOT be affected by federal freeze on grants and loans going into effect Tuesday, per a senior White House official. There's been a lot of uncertainty about this today. Here's what I have so far for @reuters.com:

BREAKING: Philadelphia workers have won the first Whole Foods union under Amazon with UFCW. Since Amazon bought the chain, workers have lost benefits and felt the squeeze. Now they're fighting back against the multi-trillion dollar giant and hoping this win will be the first of many.

Feels like ages ago, but ICYMI, I summarized all the Food & Ag-related antitrust actions that the Biden administration took just before leaving office - it was a lot! www.foodandpower.net/latest/psa-r...

NEW Food & Power from @clairek.bsky.social: Ag Antitrust Action on the Way Out the Door...Biden Administration Finalizes Poultry Payment Rules and Sues John Deere and Pepsi READ: foodandpower.substack.com/p/ag-antitru...

I had a great time speaking with Tom Philpott for @livablefuture.bsky.social's Unconfined Podcast! Learned even more from my fellow guests Mark Lavender (from @nsac-sustainableag.bsky.social) and @adamsheingate.bsky.social. Tune in for farm bill and USDA predictions under the Trump administration.

Big week for Ag Antitrust news - today the FTC sued John Deere for monopolizing repair markets (aka, denying farmers and independent repair shops their "right to repair") www.reuters.com/legal/us-ftc...

Last month, a JBS-owned cooking oil and meatpacking byproducts recycler, MOPAC, shut down its services for independent meat processors. Small plants that serve hundreds of farms have had to cut back production as a result and at least one plant has closed. www.foodandpower.net/latest/mopac...

Making useless AI videos, storing billions of unread emails, streaming everything, all uses lots of energy. As the planet literally burns, tech giants plan to build 10 large data centers in MN that could demand as much electricity as *every home in the state* www.startribune.com/mega-data-ce...

We're always ready for the new edition of Food & Power. This week @clairek.bsky.social writes that "Analysts Expect More Food Mergers in 2025" and explores the kinds of mergers they're tracking and why. foodandpower.substack.com/p/analysts-e...

With more lenient antitrust enforcers and declining interest rates, food industry experts anticipate more mergers in 2025. My latest for F&P! open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...

"As the [Dem Party] soul searches for post-election lessons, it should respond to growing conspiratorial and anti-institutional fervor by challenging the real forces driving it: that is, corporate greed putting profits ahead of public health." from @clairek.bsky.social of @openmarkets.bsky.social

Great piece by @clairek.bsky.social on the dangers of RFK Jr’s conspiracy theories and why he is not the leader the U.S. needs to improve food safety and health thehill.com/opinion/heal...

NEW: In @openmarkets.bsky.social latest newsletter, @austinahlman.bsky.social examines how the fight to rein in Big Tech in the US is moving to the states. And how Google is already there in some big ways. READ: www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...

Late to the game but @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social in the @theatlantic.com has the most persuasive case I've seen on how gutting the Robinson-Patman Act contributed to the rise of food deserts www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

A timely and interesting article from @clairek.bsky.social looking at The Monopolies Behind Your Thanksgiving Dinner: e.g. "Two private equity giants grow 60% of all carrots" (and 1 was recently part of a major food-borne illness scandal)...

Ayo! The greatest to ever do reporting on corporate power over food and agriculture — the one and only @clairek.bsky.social — is now on Substack! Make sure to subscribe to her newsletter ASAP: open.substack.com/pub/foodandp...