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Read the pages in Common Core Achieve that tell the conditions of a monopoly. Write one way that the beef companies are/are not a monopoly

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If you're a meat eater you've probably noticed a bigger food shopping bill lately. The price of lean ground beef and bacon is about 20% higher than a year ago while the price of chicken breast is almost 6% higher--all well above the 1.5% increase in the CPI.

Meat prices have been rising steadily since 2006 because of the power of a few companies, according to Christopher Leonard, author of the new book The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business. He defines meat, by the way, as beef, chicken and pork.

Related: Food Labeling Laws: It's a Matter of 'When' Not 'If'

Four companies produce 85% of all the beef in the United States: Tyson Foods (TSN), JBS (JBSAY), Cargill and Smithfield Foods, Leonard tells The Daily Ticker. These companies have the "market power to depress what they pay farmers while at the same time keeping prices higher...for consumers," Leonard explains in the video above.

And that's not the only way consumers pay for this "monopolistic situation," says Leonard.

Related: Soda, GMOs and food stamps: The biggest food stories of 2013

When farms that provide animals to the big four producers go bankrupt -- which they often do, says Leonard, because producers like Tyson put the squeeze on them -- U.S. taxpayers pay that bill too. An "obscure loan program bails out banks for about 90% of the lost loan value," says Leonard.

The American Meat Institute had this to say about "The Meat Racket":

"Mr. Leonard's criticisms of the meat and poultry industry should be examined against its results. If a competitive industry that operates under the most intensive regulatory and inspection regime in America and still produces the safest, most varied, most abundant and most affordable food supply in the world isn't good enough for Mr. Leonard, then we challenge him to point to a nation with a better system. While waiting for that answer, we'll keep on providing meat and poultry to the 95 percent of Americans who routinely make our products part of their diets."

The former AP reporter hopes that his book raises awareness of these food power structures that have been "hidden for a long time." He also hopes that Washington legislators use anti-trust regulations to limit the power of the top four meat producers and increase the power of farmers.

Related: What Chipotle is doing right

What are the odds of that happening? Almost nil, according to Leonard. "In 2010 and 2011 when there was a really ambitious reform agenda proposed by President Barack Obama, it was absolutely dismantled, pushed back and defeated by the meat industry lobbyists" and probably "did more damage than if they had not proposed to do anything" at all.

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How 4 companies control almost all the meat you eat

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If you're a meat eater you've probably noticed a bigger food shopping bill lately. The price of lean ground beef and bacon is about 20% higher than a year ago while the price of chicken breast is almost 6% higher--all well above the 1.5% increase in the CPI.

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Write a sentence that has to do with the supply and demand of the Beef Companies and the public

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Write a sentence that has to do with the supply and demand of the Beef Companies and the public

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What is Economics? How does it pertain to the beef industry? 

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What is Economics? How does it pertain to the beef industry? 

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Write a sentence with a factor of production as it relates to the beef industry. 

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Write a sentence with a factor of production as it relates to the beef industry. 

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What are the four factors of production when it comes to the Beef industry?

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Factors of Production - Fundamental Economics

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A Monopoly is one company that controls everything.The beef industry is 4 companies.
There are no rivals to these 4 companies and they supply all of the meat to consumers.
The beef industry doesn't share any information to anyone not even the farmers who work for them.

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1. A Monopoly is of 1 company and the beef is of 4
2.These 4 companies are the only one that can supply beef
3.They don't have to worry about rivals are charging because they charge high and choose what they want to pay the farmers
4.Monopolies have all the information about there products & market but seldom to share it with the buyers

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Economics is the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption, and transfer of wealth.The beef industry sells goods to the consumers however the conditions of these products is not the safest/cleanest.and its basically cheap due to the animals our meats come from on a corn diet.

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Beef companies are not considered a monopoly. There are only 4 beef companies while a monopoly is a single company who produces all of the industry's output.

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Factors of Production By Devone Peterson.

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Factors of Production By Devone Peterson.

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The beef industry controls all farmers lands everything from equipment to the good they produce.The labor of the beef industry is to keep the animals alive for slaughtering even if sick.The beef industry makes interest by keeping farmers in debt and in need of service.The beef industry is the only industry of 4 companies that produces meat as far as Entrepreneurship the products are one of a kind and cant be easily recreated by other companies/industries.

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The companies demand more money because they know they are the only ones supplying.

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Beef Companies supply goods on the demands of Consumers.The beef industries demand more money because there isn't and rivals to compete with the goods they produce.

Devone Peterson

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Beef companies supply the products when customers demand it.

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Economics is a study of how society uses its limited resources.It pretains to the beef industry because it shows how some people can afford it and some cannot. Also,it shows how the beef companies mindsets/thinking are towards the people.For example beef can cause heart diseases,diabetes,arthritis, and plenty other heart conditions ,but they fail to mention that just to get they buyers to keep coming.

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Economics is module, that'll make you experience opportunity costs. This pertains to the beef industry because farmers know you'll buy the meat & see the production of goods and services.

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One factor of production that relates to the beef industry would have to be labor because they work to keep the animals to be able for humans to consume.Also,they are considered to have entrepreneurship because there are only 4 companies that provide beef of course people are going to buy it and they have control over the farmers and the buyers.There land is there company.