White House Advisers Tasked with Finding Way to Lower Soaring Beef Prices

quote:

---

A group of President Trump’s top advisers have convened to tackle soaring beef prices, according to people familiar with the discussions, showing how the administration is escalating efforts to wrangle food inflation.

Steak and ground beef have hit record highs this year, sending everyone including meatpackers, supermarkets and restaurants looking for ways to ease the pain.

The problem: There is no easy way to bring down prices, which have climbed steadily since 2021.

After the pandemic, ranchers decided to thin their cattle herds following years of weakening financial conditions. And because it takes about two years for the animals to reach maturity, the U.S. now has the lowest number of cattle on its pastures since the 1950s. Beef remains a popular protein for consumers to buy, contributing to the supply squeeze.

Trump on Saturday called for the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to create task forces to examine whether anticompetitive behavior exists in U.S. food supply chains. The Justice Department has also launched a new antitrust investigation into meatpacking companies.

---

quote:

---

Attendees of Trump’s beef policy meetings have included Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Stephen Miller and Peter Navarro, and the group has met a few times, the people said.

One plan, discussed at a November meeting, was reopening the southern U.S. border to imported Mexican cattle. A ban on imported cattle was implemented to stem the migration of a flesh-eating parasite.

---

quote:

---

Trump has also discussed administration plans on beef with Gov. Jim Pillen of Nebraska, one of the top beef-producing states. In late October, the president told Pillen on a call that he was planning to import more beef from Argentina in a bid to lower prices, according to people familiar with the call.

“The Trump administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to lowering beef prices with multiple agencies slashing regulations, supporting small processing facilities, and taking other actions to support both ranchers and consumers,” a White House spokeswoman said in a statement.

Cattle ranchers sit atop the beef supply chain, and their earnings are near record levels. But they say it will take time to lower prices because rebuilding their herds takes several years.

In recent weeks, Trump angered ranchers—a loyal voting bloc—by telling them prices needed to fall and that the U.S. would increase imports from South America. “If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible!” Trump wrote in October in a Truth Social post.

---

quote:

---

The Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund, known as R-Calf, has lobbied the Trump administration to increase scrutiny of meatpackers, reduce beef imports and introduce stricter labeling requirements to identify the country where beef is processed and slaughtered.

---

quote:

---

“I genuinely believe they’re listening and weighing our recommendations,” said Bill Bullard, a former rancher based in Billings, Mont., who runs R-Calf.

---

quote:

---

Officials from a meatpacking trade group told Rollins in November that company executives have been on edge for the past year about difficult industry conditions.

A week after the meeting, America’s largest meat supplier, Tyson Foods, said it would close its Lexington, Neb., beef plant and cut production at a Texas plant to reduce costs. Tyson’s plan reduces total beef-industry slaughter capacity by about 8%, according to estimates from Oklahoma State University.

Adding to the challenges: A newly opened Justice Department probe into potential anticompetitive practices by the largest U.S. meatpackers. The companies—Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef—have declined comment on the investigation.

---

quote:

---

Industry officials have defended the companies’ practices and said they are hurting from rising prices, just like consumers.

Executives say that increasing lean ground-beef imports and the resumption of Mexican cattle crossing the border will help ease the supply burden. Mexico sends about a million calves across the border each year to Texas feedlots—about 3% of the U.S. total.

---