So, when President Donald Trump announced that the United States would bring in over 661 million pounds of foreign beef over 90 days with lower tariffs, I took it personally. I recently told CBS News that this decision could push ranchers like me out of business and it won’t do anything to lower prices at the grocery store. I’ve got beef with Trump’s plan because American farmers are paying the price.
I’ve got beef with NWGA’s Representative Clay Fuller because he’s remained silent on an issue deeply impacting our communities. America’s herd is at its lowest level in decades. Ranchers have been hit by droughts, high input costs for feed, diesel, fertilizer and other supplies.
Raising cattle takes planning, money and years of work. Farmers don’t make decisions one week at a time. When prices become unpredictable and the cost of keeping cattle keeps climbing, farmers may decide they cannot afford to keep as many animals.
That would make our cattle shortage even worse. But that’s not the only issue. The monopoly in the meatpacking industry is a big part of the reason we’re in this situation.
The ”Big 4” meat packers control more than 85 percent of all the beef processed. They set the price the farmer gets for his cattle, and the price people pay at the grocery store. The industry is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged price fixing, among other antitrust violations.
This is killing the family run cattle operations, and it doesn’t need to be this way. We should enforce our antitrust laws and create more competition among meat processors. We should create local and regional meat processing hubs so farmers have more choices about where they sell their cattle.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
