FOOD FIGHT: Charges of antitrust violations sets up a courtroom battle between major protein producers and retailers.

• Author: Martin, Edward

In the foothills behind the gates of a gray, steaming plant in Wilkesboro, hundreds of Tyson Foods employees slaughter and package chickens around the clock. Cattycornered across the state, Rose Hill-based House of Raeford daily sends tons of turkeys and broilers to tables. Here, tourists visit the world's largest skillet, able to sizzle 360 fryers at one time.

In Mount Olive, Butterball's plant with more than 3,000 workers is as large as a shopping mall. It is eclipsed by Smithfield Foods' 4,500-worker plant in Tar Heel in Bladen County. They are the biggest of their respective fields, anywhere.

Those are prime examples of North Carolina's meatpacking industry, says Robert Ford, executive director of the N.C. Poultry Foundation, which represents more than 5,000 turkey and chicken producers. Poultry pumps $40 billion a year into the state, and pork adds $10 billion.

"When it comes to meat, we're one of the biggest producers in the United States," adds N.C. State Agricultural & Technical University economist Kathleen Liang in Greensboro.

By year end, that industry is expected to be locked in a historic courtroom battle in Chicago, following a decade of mostly under-the-radar legal wrangling. Soon to explode into public view are accusations that the industry's major players manipulated prices and violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. Critics and court documents portray the companies that feed America as a secrecy-driven cartel.

The plaintiffs alleging they were harmed by the meatpackers include retailing giants Kroger, Walmart and Aldi; food distributor kingpin Sysco; and restaurant groups such as Chick-fil-A and Sonic. Giant meat processors have engaged in antitrust violations for years, they claim, colluding to drive up consumer prices and their profits by various measures, including agreeing to limit how much meat they sent to market.

The defendants deny the accusations. "[Plaintiffs] claim over a 13-year or longer period, the companies got together and restricted volume so prices would increase," says Henry Jones, an attorney at Raleigh's Jordan Price law firm who represents House of Raeford and the N.C. poultry group. "We're talking about 18 to 20 different parties that are all in competition with each other. That's pretty ridiculous, but that's the industry side of it." Adds Ford, "It's above my pay grade, but it looks like they're beating a dead horse."

Officials of several other companies named in the lawsuits declined to comment...