U.S. President Donald Trump drew the ire of the U.S. cattle industry after proposing to import more beef from Argentina to help lower beef prices at U.S. grocery stores. Christian Lovell, the senior director of programs for Farm Action, said he wasn’t happy with Trump’s saying producers need to take less money to help lower cattle prices.
“The president’s comments on social media were disrespectful to me and to cattle producers across the United States. I don’t know what the president’s advisors are telling him, but they are wrong. It’s not the American rancher that controls the price of beef in this country. It’s the giant corporations who control meatpacking, and there’s only 4 of them, and recent estimates say they control 80 to 85 percent of the market. They are a monopoly, and this monopoly is about as corrupt as they come. It seems like every time you turn around, there’s a new price-fixing lawsuit. For too long, this meatpacking monopoly has profited off the backs of the American consumer. They’ve squeezed out independent cattle producers and set up the scenario where you have something like a multi-year drought where, all of a sudden, cattle inventory numbers are as low as they are.”
He questions if enough beef can be purchased from Argentina to make a big difference for beef prices.
“Argentina is a country that they, themselves, consume a lot of beef, so they have their own domestic demand that they have to meet. It’s also been raised that Argentina is a country that does have active foot and mouth disease cases. That is a very highly-contagious disease that has been eradicated here in the United States for quite some time. Every pound of beef that we import from a country with active FM D cases represents a risk to our industry and our food supply. I’m not convinced that just importing beef solves the consolidation problem that we have. Earlier this month, Tyson and Cargill had to settle, I believe, it was close to $88 million they’re going to pay out to consumers for a price-fixing lawsuit related to beef that goes back to 2019.”
While farmers will hopefully get more financial help during the downturn, Lovell said it’s indicative of larger problems.
“I’m pretty sure we’re going to see another government bailout that will provide short-term relief. We’re concerned that some of that money does end up in the largest operators, and so, all of those things are important factors in that, but it’s also important to realize that’s not a sustainable solution. When you look at the last 12 months, there was a bailout last winter. There was money that was in this one big, beautiful bill package over the summer, and now we’re hearing about another farmer bailout this fall. Yeah, that’s a Band-Aid, but totally unsustainable for the American taxpayers, totally unsustainable on government spending, and it’s a red flag that something is wrong.”
He talks about what direction the president and his administration should be going in.
“We want the President to double down on domestic cattle production and domestic beef production. American ranchers, as I mentioned, are the critical component of our ability to produce the safest, highest quality, most sustainable beef of anywhere in the world. Importing beef is not the answer here. We’ve got to rebuild the nation’s cow herd, and in order to do that, ranchers have to have the right incentives, and they have to have a fair market. So, what I would encourage the President to take a look at is restoring the mandatory country of origin labeling.”
Lovell also pointed out that beef is one of the few products that doesn’t have a country-of-origin label.