President Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order directing the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to create new Food Supply Chain Security Task Force units to investigate price fixing and other anti-competitive behavior across food-related industries.
The order carries a focus on whether foreign-controlled corporations are driving up grocery costs and creating national security risks.
In Trump's directive, titled "Addressing Security Risks From Price Fixing and Anti-Competitive Behavior in the Food Supply Chain," affordability and reliability of food supplies are framed as a national and economic security priority.
It cites past civil settlements involving allegations of price fixing for tens of millions of dollars, and says multiple sectors, including meat processing, seed, fertilizer, and equipment, face vulnerabilities to collusion and other market abuses.
The order adds that anti-competitive behavior, especially when carried out by foreign-controlled corporations, threatens the stability and affordability of America's food supply.
Under the directive, the attorney general and the FTC chairman must each establish a task force within their respective agencies.
The order instructs them to take all necessary and appropriate actions to investigate whether anti-competitive conduct exists in U.S. food supply chains and whether foreign control of food-related industries is increasing food costs or creating a security threat.
The order also authorizes enforcement actions and new regulatory approaches if investigations uncover wrongdoing.
If the Justice Department task force finds evidence of criminal collusion, the attorney general is directed to begin criminal proceedings as appropriate, including grand jury investigations.
The executive order also instructs the task forces, as permitted by law, to provide joint progress briefings to the speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader, and relevant committee chairs twice: once within 180 days and again within 365 days.
Those briefings must exclude details of ongoing investigations, prosecutions, regulatory actions, litigation, or other non-public information about any industry under review, the order states. The briefings may also include recommended congressional actions, if relevant.
Trump's order on Saturday comes after he demanded last month that the Department of Justice investigate meatpacking companies he believes are driving up beef prices through collusion, price fixing, and price manipulation.
"We will always protect our American Ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by Majority Foreign Owned Meat Packers, who artificially inflate prices and jeopardize the security of our Nation's food supply," he said on Truth Social at the time.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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