990318 Glickman Asks DOJ to Work With USDA on Antitrust

Nashville - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said he would like to see his agency work in tandem with the Justice Department to review the impact of antitrust laws on U.S. farming.

“I want to get the USDA working more closely with the Justice Department,” Glickman said in a speech to the National Pork Producers Council. “We need a focus review of agriculture relating to antitrust laws.”

Glickman met with Justice Department Antitrust Division Chief Joel Klein on Wednesday to discuss concentration in agriculture, a trend that some say could force smaller producers out of business.

Justice has “the people power and history to deal with some of these larger, structural issues,” Glickman said. “We need to be working together much more closely than we have in the past.”

There have been a host of mergers and consolidations in agriculture announced recently. Last week, Smithfield Foods said it will buy Carroll's Foods Inc., making it the second-largest hog producer.

Cargill Inc. plans to buy the grain business of Continental Grain Co. There have also been reports that Monsanto Co. (NYSE:MTC - news) is in talks to merge with DuPont Co. (NYSE:DD - news), a move that could create a biotechnology powerhouse that could dominate the agriculture and life sciences industries.

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