In a telephone conversation, Ashcroft agreed to Grassley's request to have antitrust officials from the Justice Department meet on Capitol Hill about the matter with Grassley's own staff.
"I wanted to speak to the Attorney General personally and lay out all the arguments for him. I have very strong reservations about this proposed transaction and the continued trend in concentration in the pork industry," Grassley said. "The Attorney General remembered that I brought up the concentration issue during his confirmation hearing and said he knows how important it is to family farmers."
Following the announcement of the acquisition in early July, Grassley wrote to the Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division of the Justice Department expressing his continued concerns with increased consolidation in the agricultural sector and its impact on rural America.
Grassley has aggressively sought to have federal regulators more carefully review agribusiness mergers to ensure competition. He is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and a member of the Agriculture Committee.