Sysco Defends Merger with US Foods, Exploits Split Among FTC Commissioners
Sysco will defend the proposed merger with US Foods by focusing on the split decision among the Federal Trade Commission’s five commissioners in their vote to block the deal. According to Sysco’s defense team the 3-2 vote is a sign that at least part of the FTC believes the deal does not violate antitrust or anti competitive laws. “Two of those commissioners could find no — zero — reason to believe this transaction is anti competitive,” said Richard Parker, an attorney with O’Melveny & Myers, a firm representing Sysco.
In today’s Editor View column John Sackton writes how the USDA’s latest Dietary Guidelines report has given the seafood industry a huge opportunity that is hard for the industry to take advantage of. The 2015 Guidelines indicate that both wild caught and farmed seafood are an environmentally sustainable resource, rich in key nutrients. However, according to Sackton the industry is at a disadvantage when it comes to launching a coherent national campaign to promote these findings. “Our industry is too small and fragmented to ever counter the money spent by NGO’s and those fund raising off the ocean crisis, who have a vested interest in not assuring consumers seafood is totally safe and sustainable,” says Sackton.
West Coast port workers and carriers agreed to five-year labor contract late Friday. Full-time work resumed at the LA and Long Beach ports over the weekend. The challenge now is to work through months of backlog. “Just based on the mathematics, it will be about three months before we return to a sense of normalcy,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.
Finally, part two of Abundant Oceans' video series profiling the history of Alaska’s state-run fishery management program is now available. The ADF&G’s role in rallying Alaska’s fishermen to cooperatively put salmon escapements first in order to rebuild the run is profiled.
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