Technology and data science have infiltrated every industry. Every industry is using data to figure out what everyone else is charging and push prices on consumers as high as the market will bear.
The latest clash between market dynamics, data science, and consumers is going on right now. Minnesota, California, Tennessee, and First News on 570’s home state of North Carolina have joined a lawsuit against Agri Stats. Agri Stats is a data science company that uses data analytics to improve how farms operate. According to their website, they use data to, “identify efficiency opportunities on a farm, flock, or plant level. We service customers in the chicken, turkey, commercial egg, and swine industries; both domestically and internationally.”
Using Data to Collude on Prices
The US Department of Justice filed suite against Agri Stats in September saying the company operates “information exchanges to promote total industry profits at the expense of competition” in violation of the 130-year-old Sherman Antitrust Act.
The lawsuit is a dragnet encompassing some of the country’s largest farms, meat producers, and meat packers. Cargill is a large scale agribusiness that owns farms across the nation. Hormel is a household name producing delicious chili and corned beef hash for millions of bellies.
Food Prices Are Higher Than Inflation Explains
The DOJ and state governments contend Agri Stats along with their partners use data shared across multiple companies in a price fixing scheme. Allegedly, their scheme is raising the cost of beef and bacon in the United States. In most circumstances, Americans agree. Food prices have at times been inexplicably high. The price of eggs was notoriously high from 2022 to this past summer. Beef prices also put pressure on people’s bank accounts, and the price of bacon has only recently come down.
We all know prices are still annoyingly high. I’m in the camp prices don’t reflect so called supply chain issues and companies are profit taking. Hopefully these lawsuits encourage industry to not be so greedy next time.