Many Missouri farmers and ranchers are frustrated by plans to lower beef prices.
President Donald Trump proposed buying 80,000 metric tons of beef from Argentina as a short-term way to lower grocery prices. The move comes just as ranchers in the Show Me State and nationwide were hoping to reinvest in their herds this year after droughts and uncompetitive and nontransparent markets put some family farmers out of business.
Jamie Blair, rural organizer for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, said now is the time for national investment.
"For them to be finally in a position where they were getting a decent price for their cattle," Blair emphasized. "Looking at being able to rebuild – which is necessary on a market level – for our nation to be undercut in this way at such a critical time in the rebuilding process is really harmful."
She thinks one major solution would be for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enforce the antitrust Packers and Stockyards Act, taking aim at the nation's largest beef producers: Cargill, JBS USA, the National Beef Packing Company, and Tyson Foods. Meanwhile, the Justice Department said it is launching an investigation into price manipulation and collusion by the four companies.
Blair is skeptical about what lies ahead, given the administration’s shaky positions.
Other federal laws can prioritize American beef over foreign-produced beef. In 2015, Congress repealed a mandatory Country of Origin Labeling law based on rulings by the World Trade Organization prohibiting the practice. Blair argued that reinstating it could be a boon for beef producers.
"Country-of-origin labeling is overwhelmingly favored by consumers, because they would, if given the choice, choose U.S. beef pretty much every time," Blair asserted. "But the problem is, you can’t tell when you go to the grocery store to buy beef where it’s coming from."
Some states are doing what they can to prop up their beef industries. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order declaring an agricultural export crisis due to President Trump’s tariffs. While beef is Missouri’s third-largest agricultural commodity, Blair feels the state has not done enough to help ranchers. She added that new plans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are not helpful either.
"The USDA recently came out with a plan to increase grazing land," Blair noted. "Obviously, that is not going to help Missouri farmers because we’re not grazing on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, for example. So, those things won’t really help us here."
Missouri Public News Service, a partner with KRCU Public Radio, originally published this story.
