Farmer Jose Esquivel surveys his field of cattle on June 13, 2023 in Quemado, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America
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Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America
This year, Destinee Weeks and her husband, who manage a herd of about 250 cattle in northern Oklahoma, began to see a profit for the first time in a decade. So Weeks was shocked and dismayed when she learned President Trump was looking to import more beef from another country.
“ It feels like a slap in the face to rural America,” she said. “It makes you feel invisible and overlooked.”
Beef prices have been soaring in the U.S. as a result of a shrunken cattle supply. On Sunday, Trump suggested buying beef from Argentina could be one way to lower costs. It comes as the president already agreed to a $20 billion currency swap to boost the South American ally’s struggling economy.
Destinee Weeks said her husband’s farm in northern Oklahoma has been in his family for over a hundred years. Her dream is to one day pass down the farm and ranch to their children.
Destinee Weeks
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Destinee Weeks
American cattle ranchers and agricultural groups swiftly opposed the possible deal, arguing that it would hurt ranchers. But Trump defended the move while talking to reporters on Sunday, asserting that “Argentina is fighting for its life.” He also claimed on Truth Social that his global tariffs have helped ranchers.
“The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States,” Trump wrote in his Wednesday post.
Despite days of verbal clashes between president and ranchers, the White House on Wednesday confirmed plans to quadruple the tariff-rate quota for beef imports from Argentina. The same day, the Department of Agriculture announced an action plan to support domestic cattle ranchers.
The United States Cattlemen’s Association said the USDA’s initiative was a positive step forward, but the group was still “deeply concerned” about the move to purchase more foreign beef.
“A deal of this magnitude with Argentina would undercut the very foundation of our cattle industry,” USCA president Justin Tupper said in a statement.
Cattle ranchers say it’s not their fault that prices are high
The U.S. cattle inventory is at its lowest levels in decades — a trend driven by drought and rising operation costs, which has forced many ranchers to shrink their herds.
In August, the cost of ground beef per pound was about $6.63 — about two dollars more than it was four years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, higher prices have offered a path to recovery for some ranchers like Weeks.
“I wanna make it very clear, when we say it’s profitable, no one’s riding off into the sunset in a yacht,” she said. “We’re healing up.”
Meanwhile, some ranchers argue there’s another key player shaping beef prices: the four meatpacking firms that control over 80% of U.S. beef processing.
“ The American rancher is not in control of the price of beef in this country,” said Christian Lovell, an Illinois cattle producer and senior director of programs at Farm Action, a nonpartisan advocacy group.
Recently, two of those companies — Tyson Foods and Cargill — agreed to pay a combined $87.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing them of fixing beef prices. It’s a big reason why Lovell called the cattle market “broken.”
“Importing more beef is not going to fix that problem,” he said.
Some are skeptical that importing Argentine beef will lower prices
The U.S. already imports a record amount of beef from other countries, including Argentina, according to David Anderson, a livestock economist at Texas A&M University.
The challenge with relying on foreign meat to bring down prices is that the U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of beef. Anderson said it’s unlikely that Argentina has nearly enough supply to satisfy America’s appetite.
“They just don’t have the kind of supplies that they could export to us that would make much of a noticeable impact on U.S. beef prices to consumers,” he said.
Anderson added that ultimately, it will take time for beef prices to stabilize.
“There’s no easy solution to bringing down prices — particularly an easy, quick solution,” he said.
The moves comes after a fallout with other farmers
John Boyd Jr., a cattle and crop farmer in Virginia and the founder of the National Black Farmers Association, has already been reeling from Trump’s trade war with China, which has caused it to stop buying U.S. soybeans. Now, Boyd is concerned about his cattle business.
“Everything that the president is messing with and interfering with affects my farming operation,” he said.
The USDA on Wednesday responded to the ranchers’ concerns by laying out a slew of plans to strengthen the country’s beef industry. That includes expanding grazing access and bolstering natural disaster relief.
Still, Boyd said purchasing more meat from Argentina does not sit right with him.
“I’m opposed to Argentina getting anything else from the United States,” he said.
These clashes are particularly notable because farmers and ranchers are a major voting bloc for Trump. Weeks, from Oklahoma, said she simply wants the president to stick to his agenda of putting America first.
“I think that we should always choose to support our domestic producers,” she said.