Congressional lawmakers questioned the chief executives of some of the biggest beef producers across the United States during a House hearing on Wednesday amid allegations that they engaged in unfair practices that drove down prices for cattle producers and increased the cost of meat for consumers.
The CEOs of the four multinational corporations—National Beef Packing Company, JBS USA, Cargill, and Tyson Foods—testified before the House Agriculture Committee shortly after President Joe Biden criticized them in his State of the Union address in March.
Together, the four companies control 85 percent of the beef industry.
The questioning came as consumer prices for meat, as well as poultry, fish, and eggs, were up 13.6 percent over the last year in March, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department.
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