Posted on 10/24/2025 10:55:34 AM PDT by RandFan
President Trump is facing a growing political problem in America’s agricultural heartland, as he looks to import Argentinian beef to help bring down prices for U.S. grocery shoppers.
The Trump administration is reportedly looking to quadruple low-tariff imports from Argentina, raising the quota to 80,000 metric tons per year. The news has enraged America’s beef farmers — and the Republican senators who represent them.
“This isn’t the way to do it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Trump’s efforts to drive down prices. “It’s created a lot of uncertainty in that market. So I’m hoping that the White House has gotten the message.”
Sen. Deb Fischer (Neb.), a Republican member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday she has “deep concerns” over the import plan.
“Bottom line: if the goal is addressing beef prices at the grocery store, this isn’t the way. Right now, government intervention in the beef market will hurt our cattle ranchers,” she said in a social media post.
As of July, the average price of ground beef was $6.25 per pound, up 71 cents since January, while steak prices hit an all-time high of $11.88 per pound, up almost a dollar since Trump’s return to office, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data.
Various factors are likely to blame: from years of drought and low cattle prices to Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, another major beef exporter, and a flesh-eating pest that has throttled Mexico’s beef exports.
Economists say the increased purchases from Argentina, which account for about 2 percent of beef imports, would not have a significant impact on prices. But that hasn’t stopped the cattle lobby from fuming.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America are among the farming groups that have blasted the import plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Today an Oklahoman asserted that imported Argentinian beef is inferior to domestic beef.
Is this true?
This is a really dumb idea.
The cattle industry is trying to recover from a series of hard luck events.
If we want a viable cattle industry in the US the right answer is to incentivize ranchers to keep their heifers off the feed lots and raise them as brood cows.
That’s not cheap. So they’ll need the higher prices on their steers for a couple of seasons.
Everything’s back on the path to normal in year three.
Eat more chicken, lamb, pork and fish in the mean time. And let this industry recover.
How about increasing your herds.
Personally I can’t afford to pay $40.00 a pound for beef.
The issue with beef prices is the meat packers / processors have been taken over by just a couple large corporations. Two of them are Brazilian. They are the ones driving the prices.
So, TRUMP imports beef while 90 years ago in the depression with people starving, FDR bought up, shot and buried millions of cattle and hogs to get the price up Up UP!
And that meat had to be buried, not given to the starving poor.
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farming-in-the-1930s/crops/culling-the-herds/
The issue with beef prices is the meat packers / processors have been taken over by just a couple large corporations. Two of them are Brazilian. They are the ones driving the prices.
And one is Chinese owned.
Argentina & Brazil: their cuisine, cooking/bbq, centered around beef is famous especially among food connoisseurs and usually expensive if want to dine at a restaurant specializing in it in the states. With Argentinean meat being considered more high end.
“The issue with beef prices is the meat packers / processors have been taken over by just a couple large corporations. Two of them are Brazilian. They are the ones driving the prices.”
Absolutely... Period. The middlemen are price gouging and price fixing.
Just another battle in the War on Natural Resource Harvesters - move along nothing to see - the grocery shelves will be piled high with meats of all kinds - just not US beef ...
“Argentina & Brazil: their cuisine, cooking/bbq, centered around beef is famous especially among food connoisseurs and usually expensive if want to dine at a restaurant specializing in it in the states. With Argentinean meat being considered more high end.”
Fogo De Chao... The king’s of brazilian churrasco.
Contrary to popular belief they do not use Brazilian beef they use USDA USA beef 21 day dry aged, family farm raised Australian Wagyu ,and family farm raised Lamb from New Zealand. They don’t specify grass fed in the USA , they do for the lamb.
Fun fact for my fellow veteran’s Fogo every veteran’s day does 50% off lunch or dinner for Vets and 25% for any guest with a Vet me and the Marine’s and a couple squids and fly boys go every Vday for lunch.
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