The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating the nation’s largest poultry companies and the way they pay farmers who raise their chickens.
“The U.S. government’s recent focus and attention on market dynamics in the meat processing industry could expose (Pilgrim’s Pride) to additional costs and risks,” Pilgrim’s Pride said in a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filing last month.
Chicken farmers are typically paid in a tournament-style system, in which farmers in a region are compared against other farmers to determine their payment rates—a system that farmers have criticized.
The investigation is the latest from the Biden administration, which has announced its intent to scrutinize concentration in the meat sector, especially on price fixing, wages and how farmers are paid.
