Meatpacking Monopolies: How Big Meat Is Bankrupting America’s Small Ranchers

How Tyson and Big Meat’s Monopoly Tactics Are Forcing Family Ranchers Off the Land—And Why America’s Food Future Is at Stake

The American heartland, once the backbone of family-owned agriculture, is facing a crisis few outside rural communities truly grasp. Beneath the supermarket’s “low prices” and corporate PR spin, small ranchers and poultry growers are being squeezed out by the very companies they once relied on—giants like Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. These corporations, which now control more than 80% of the beef-packing market, have been accused of using their market power to bankrupt small producers, often through contract manipulation, plant closures, and outright market exclusion. The result? Lost farms, broken communities, and a food system increasingly rigged against the people who actually raise our food.