I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2933 
To impose a moratorium on large agribusiness, food and beverage manufac-
turing, and grocery retail mergers, and to establish a commission to 
review large agriculture, food and beverage manufacturing, and grocery 
retail mergers, concentration, and market power. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 22, 2019 
Mr. POCAN (for himself, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. 
RYAN, Mr. BLUMENAUER, and Ms. SCHAKOWSKY) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in 
addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To impose a moratorium on large agribusiness, food and 
beverage manufacturing, and grocery retail mergers, and 
to establish a commission to review large agriculture, 
food and beverage manufacturing, and grocery retail 
mergers, concentration, and market power. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food and Agribusiness 
Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Concentration in the food and agricultural 
economy, including mergers, acquisitions, and other 
combinations and alliances among suppliers, pack-
ers, integrators, other food processors, distributors, 
and retailers has been accelerating at a rapid pace 
since the 1980s, and particularly since the 2007 
through 2009 recession. 
(2) The trend toward greater concentration in 
food and agriculture has important and far-reaching 
implications not only for family farmers, but also for 
food chain workers, the food we eat, the commu-
nities we live in, and the integrity of the natural en-
vironment upon which we all depend. 
(3) In the past three decades, the top 4 largest 
pork packers have seized control of 71 percent of the 
market, up from 36 percent. Over the same period, 
the top 4 beef packers have expanded their market 
share from 32 percent to 85 percent. The top 4 flour 
millers have increased their market share from 40 
percent to 64 percent. The market share of the top 
4 soybean crushers has jumped from 54 percent to 
79 percent, and the top 4 wet corn processors con-
trol of the market has increased from 63 percent to 
86 percent. 
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(4) Today the top 4 sheep, poultry, and fluid 
milk processors now control 57 percent, 53 percent, 
and 50 percent of the market, respectively. 
(5) The top 4 grain companies today control as 
much as 90 percent of the global grain trade. 
(6) During the past 2 years there has been a 
wave of consolidation among global seed and crop- 
chemical firms, 3 companies now control nearly 2⁄3 
of the world’s commodity crop seeds. Those same 3 
companies now also control nearly 70 percent of all 
agricultural chemicals and pesticides. 
(7) In the United States, the 4 largest corn 
seed sellers accounted for 85 percent of the market 
in 2015, up from 60 percent in 2000. Over the past 
20 years, the cost for an acre’s worth of seeds for 
an average corn farmer has nearly quadrupled, and 
the cost of fertilizer has more than doubled. Yet 
corn yields increased only 36 percent over that time, 
and the price received for the sale of a bushel of 
corn increased only 31 percent. 
(8) A handful of firms dominate the processing 
of every major commodity. Many of them are 
vertically integrated, which means that they control 
successive stages of the food chain, from inputs to 
production to distribution. The growing number and 
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scale of cross-border agribusiness and food mergers 
have put foreign firms, often with considerable gov-
ernment backing, into prominent and even dominant 
positions in the United States beef, hog, poultry, 
seed, fertilizer, and agrichemical sectors. 
(9) Growing concentration of the agricultural 
sector has restricted choices for farmers trying to 
sell their products. As the bargaining power of agri-
business firms over farmers increases, concentrated 
agricultural commodity markets are stacked against 
the farmer, with buyers of agricultural commodities 
often possessing regional dominance in the form of 
oligopsony or monopsony relative to sellers of such 
commodities. 
(10) The high concentration and consolidation 
of buyers in agricultural markets has resulted in the 
thinning of both cash and futures markets, thereby 
allowing dominant buyers to leverage their market 
shares to move those markets to the detriment of 
family farmers and ranchers. 
(11) 
Buyers 
with 
oligopsonistic 
or 
monopsonistic power have incentives to engage in 
unfair and discriminatory acts that cause farmers to 
receive less than a competitive price for their goods. 
At the same time, some Federal courts have incor-
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rectly required a plaintiff to show harm to competi-
tion generally, in addition to harm to the individual 
farmer, when making a determination that an un-
fair, unjustly discriminatory, deceptive, or pref-
erential act exists under the Packers and Stockyards 
Act of 1921. 
(12) The farmer’s share of every retail dollar 
has plummeted from 41 percent in 1950, to less 
than 15 percent today, while the profit share for 
farm input, marketing, and processing companies 
has risen. 
(13) While agribusiness conglomerates are post-
ing record earnings, farmers are facing desperate 
times. Since 2013, net farm income for United 
States farmers has fallen by more than half and me-
dian on-farm income was negative in 2017 and in 
2018 and is expected to be negative again in 2019. 
(14) The benefits of low commodity prices are 
not being passed on to American consumers. The 
gap between what shoppers pay for food and what 
farmers are paid is growing wider. 
(15) The steadily rising price of food has out-
paced growth in incomes for typical workers. Since 
the Great Recession, the annual growth of real 
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prices for food at the supermarket have risen nearly 
3 times faster than typical earnings. 
(16) There is growing consensus that economic 
consolidation contributes to the widening gap in eco-
nomic opportunity in the United States and bigger, 
more dominant firms are more likely to deliver prof-
its to investors than to raise wages or benefits. 
Mega-mergers in the food and agribusiness indus-
tries can lead to growing monopsony power abuse re-
sulting in wage suppression, along with massive lay-
offs as companies shutter factories and facilities, 
harming working families and communities. 
(17) Concentration, low prices, anticompetitive 
practices, and other manipulations and abuses of the 
agricultural economy are driving small family farm-
ers out of business. Farmers are going bankrupt or 
giving up, and few are taking their places; more 
farm families are having to rely on other jobs to stay 
afloat. Eighty-three percent of farm household in-
come is expected to come from off-farm work this 
year, up from 53 percent in 1960. 
(18) Eighty-one percent of America’s farmed 
cropland is now controlled by 15 percent of farms, 
and the number of farmers leaving the land will con-
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tinue to increase unless and until these trends are 
reversed. 
(19) The decline of small family farms under-
mines the economies of rural communities across 
America; it has pushed Main Street businesses, from 
equipment suppliers to small banks, out of business 
or to the brink of insolvency. 
(20) Increased concentration in the agribusiness 
sector has a harmful effect on the environment; cor-
porate hog farming, for example, threatens the in-
tegrity of local water supplies and creates noxious 
odors in neighboring communities. Concentration 
also can increase the risks to food safety and limit 
the biodiversity of plants and animals. 
(21) The decline of family farming poses a di-
rect threat to American families and family values, 
by subjecting farm families to turmoil and stress. 
Farm advocates across the country are reporting an 
increase in farmer suicides over the past several 
years. 
(22) The decline of family farming causes the 
demise of rural communities, as stores lose cus-
tomers, churches lose congregations, schools and 
clinics become under-used, career opportunities for 
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young people dry up, and local inequalities of wealth 
and income grow wider. 
(23) These developments are not the result of 
inevitable market forces. Its problems arise rather 
from policies made in Washington, including farm, 
antitrust, and trade policies. 
(24) Past congressional action to remediate 
market failure, such as enacting country-of-origin la-
beling to provide transparency for domestic farmers, 
ranchers, and consumers regarding agricultural com-
modity origins, have been overturned for key com-
modities by oligopolistic conglomerates that use un-
differentiated imports to reduce domestic farm 
prices. 
(25) To restore competition in the agricultural 
economy, and to increase the bargaining power and 
enhance economic prospects for family farmers, the 
trend toward concentration must be reversed. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) AGRICULTURAL
INPUT
SUPPLIER.—The 
term ‘‘agricultural input supplier’’ means any person 
(excluding agricultural cooperatives) engaged in the 
business of selling, in interstate or foreign com-
merce, any product to be used as an input (including 
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seed, germ plasm, hormones, antibiotics, fertilizer, 
and chemicals, but excluding farm machinery) for 
the production of any agricultural commodity, except 
that no person shall be considered an agricultural 
input supplier if sales of such products are for a 
value less than $10,000,000 per year. 
(2) BROKER.—The term ‘‘broker’’ means any 
person engaged in the business of negotiating sales 
and purchases of any agricultural commodity in 
interstate or foreign commerce for or on behalf of 
the vendor or the purchaser, except that no person 
shall be considered a broker if the only sales of such 
commodities are for a value less than $10,000,000 
per year. 
(3) COMMISSION MERCHANT.—The term ‘‘com-
mission merchant’’ means any person engaged in the 
business of receiving in interstate or foreign com-
merce any agricultural commodity for sale, on com-
mission, or for or on behalf of another, except that 
no person shall be considered a commission mer-
chant if the only sales of such commodities are for 
a value less than $10,000,000 per year. 
(4) DEALER.—The term ‘‘dealer’’ means any 
person (excluding agricultural cooperatives) engaged 
in the business of buying, selling, or marketing agri-
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cultural commodities in interstate or foreign com-
merce, except that— 
(A) no person shall be considered a dealer 
with respect to sales or marketing of any agri-
cultural commodity of that person’s own rais-
ing; and 
(B) no person shall be considered a dealer 
if the only sales of such commodities are for a 
value less than $10,000,000 per year. 
(5) 
INTEGRATOR.—The 
term 
‘‘integrator’’ 
means an entity that contracts with farmers for 
grower services to raise chickens or hogs to slaugh-
ter size and weight. The integrator owns the chick-
ens or hogs, supplies the feed, slaughters, and fur-
ther processes the poultry or pork. 
(6) PROCESSOR.—The term ‘‘processor’’ means 
any person (excluding agricultural cooperatives) en-
gaged in the business of handling, preparing, or 
manufacturing (including slaughtering and food and 
beverage manufacturing) of an agricultural com-
modity, or the products of such agricultural com-
modity, for sale or marketing for human consump-
tion, except that no person shall be considered a 
processor if the only sales of such products are for 
a value less than $10,000,000 per year. 
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(7) RETAILER.—The term ‘‘retailer’’ means any 
person (excluding agricultural cooperatives, coopera-
tive retailers, and cooperative distributers) licensed 
as a retailer under the Perishable Agriculture Com-
modities Act of 1930 (7 U.S.C. 499a(b)), except 
that no person shall be considered a retailer if the 
only sales of such products are for a value less than 
$10,000,000 per year. 
TITLE 
I—MORATORIUM 
ON 
LARGE AGRIBUSINESS, FOOD 
AND 
BEVERAGE 
MANUFAC-
TURING, AND GROCERY RE-
TAIL MERGERS 
SEC. 101. MORATORIUM ON LARGE AGRIBUSINESS, FOOD 
AND BEVERAGE MANUFACTURING, AND GRO-
CERY RETAIL MERGERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.— 
(1) MORATORIUM.—Until the date referred to 
in paragraph (2) and except as provided in sub-
section (b)— 
(A) no dealer, processor, commission mer-
chant, agricultural input supplier, broker, or 
operator of a warehouse of agricultural com-
modities or retailer with annual net sales or 
total assets of more than $160,000,000 shall 
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merge or acquire, directly or indirectly, any vot-
ing securities or assets of any other dealer, 
processor, commission merchant, agricultural 
input supplier, broker, or operator of a ware-
house of agricultural commodities or retailer 
with annual net sales or total assets of more 
than $16,000,000; and 
(B) no dealer, processor, commission mer-
chant, agricultural input supplier, broker, or 
operator of a warehouse of agricultural com-
modities or retailer with annual net sales or 
total assets of more than $16,000,000 shall 
merge or acquire, directly or indirectly, any vot-
ing securities or assets of any other dealer, 
processor, commission merchant, agricultural 
input supplier, broker, or operator of a ware-
house of agricultural commodities or retailer 
with annual net sales or total assets of more 
than $160,000,000 if the acquiring person 
would hold— 
(i) 15 percent or more of the voting 
securities or assets of the acquired person; 
or 
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(ii) an aggregate total amount of the 
voting securities and assets of the acquired 
person in excess of $15,000,000. 
(2) DATE.—The date referred to in this para-
graph is the effective date of comprehensive legisla-
tion— 
(A) addressing the problem of market con-
centration in the food and agricultural sector; 
and 
(B) containing a section stating that the 
legislation is comprehensive legislation as pro-
vided in section 101 of the Food and Agri-
business Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Re-
view Act of 2019. 
(b) WAIVER AUTHORITY.—The Attorney General 
shall have authority to waive the moratorium imposed by 
subsection (a) only under extraordinary circumstances, 
such as insolvency or similar financial distress of one of 
the affected parties. 
(c) EXEMPTIONS.—The classes of transactions de-
scribed in section 7A(c) of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 
18a(c)) are exempt from subsection (a). 
(d) AVOIDANCE.—Any transaction or other device en-
tered into or employed for the purpose of avoiding the 
moratorium contained in subsection (a) shall be dis-
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regarded, and the application of the moratorium shall be 
determined by applying subsection (a) to the substance of 
the transaction. 
(e) RULEMAKING.—The Attorney General shall pro-
mulgate regulations that the Attorney General determines 
are necessary to implement this section. 
TITLE 
II—AGRICULTURE 
CON-
CENTRATION 
AND 
MARKET 
POWER REVIEW COMMISSION 
SEC. 201. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMISSION. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established a com-
mission to be known as the Food and Agriculture Con-
centration and Market Power Review Commission (here-
after in this title referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purpose of the Commission is 
to— 
(1) study the nature and consequences of con-
centration in America’s food and agricultural econ-
omy; and 
(2) make recommendations on how to change 
underlying antitrust laws and other Federal laws 
and regulations to keep a fair and competitive agri-
culture marketplace for family farmers, other small 
and medium-sized agriculture producers, generally, 
and the communities of which they are a part. 
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(c) MEMBERSHIP OF COMMISSION.— 
(1) COMPOSITION.—The Commission shall be 
composed of 12 members as follows: 
(A) Three persons, 1 of whom shall be a 
person currently engaged in farming or ranch-
ing, shall be appointed by the President pro 
tempore of the Senate upon the recommenda-
tion of the majority leader of the Senate, after 
consultation with the Chairs of the Committee 
on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and of 
the Committee on the Judiciary. 
(B) Three persons, 1 of whom shall be a 
person currently engaged in farming or ranch-
ing, shall be appointed by the President pro 
tempore of the Senate upon the recommenda-
tion of the minority leader of the Senate, after 
consultation with the ranking minority member 
of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 
and Forestry and of the Committee on the Ju-
diciary. 
(C) Three persons, 1 of whom shall be a 
person currently engaged in farming or ranch-
ing and 1 of whom shall be a representative of 
organized labor, shall be appointed by the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, after 
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