Let me state the obvious here for a second: Grocery store prices are too damn high.

Giant corporations want you to think that it’s just because of inflation. But that’s ignoring two other big factors at play here: consolidation and greed.

You see, when grocery stores have less competition, they have less incentive to attract consumers with lower prices or higher quality. And right now, just four big companies — Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and Ahold — control over 70% of the grocery market in most major cities.

And this isn’t just about companies that own the grocery stores. It’s about the companies that fill the shelves. A couple of big cereal manufacturers control nearly 60% of the market. A single company controls about 20% of the egg market. Four corporations control 85% of the beef industry and 75% of the pork industry.

How did we get here? Literally hundreds of mergers over the last 50 years.

So with limited competition, grocery store and food giants are enabled to price gouge consumers and blame inflation. Families are now paying 25% more for groceries as compared to before the pandemic.

Big food companies want to keep these huge profits and they're hiring plenty of lobbyists to keep Congress from acting. So I’m encouraging President Biden to exercise his executive authority to take additional action to address rising food prices without Congress.

More on my plan below, but we need to show that Americans are paying attention to this issue and are calling for action. Please add your name if high grocery store prices are affecting you, and you agree that the greedy food and grocery store corporations need regulatory intervention.

President Biden has been bringing his administration to bear on this issue — taking robust action to push down costs for families.

Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern and I have written a letter to President Biden urging his administration to continue using all the tools on his desk like to address rising food prices and lower food prices for families. This includes:

• Encouraging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to prohibit exclusionary contracting by dominant firms in the food industry.
• Urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FTC to scrutinize, and where appropriate, block mergers and acquisitions in the food and agricultural sectors.
• Tapping in the DOJ to prosecute actors in the agricultural and food sectors for price fixing and other anticompetitive behavior.
• Directing the CFTC and FTC to form a joint task force to investigate food price manipulation throughout the supply chain.

And that’s just to name a few of the tools we have to tackle this. These actions from the administration would complement my Price Gouging Prevention Act and Shrinkflation Prevention Act with Senator Bob Casey, which would crack down on corporate price gouging across the board.

Look, families are identifying the cost of food and groceries as the top issue they've been facing. The federal government should use every possible tool to lower food prices — whether that’s by passing legislation or using the authority of federal departments.

I’m pulling on every lever possible to get relief to working families. Please add your name to say you support this work and you agree that the government should step in and hold giant food and grocery store companies accountable.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth