Sean Dengler.

Beef. It’s what’s for dinner. Well, for some, Argentinian beef. On February 6, President Trump signed an executive order to permit “an additional 80,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings per year from Argentina to be imported tariff-free in four quarterly tranches of 20,000 metric tons each.”

To be honest, I have no idea if this is a sizable chunk of beef in the market supply, but the optics are not great. It does not matter who is president, but when the beef herd is at a 75-year low and the only market favorable to farmers is the cattle market, action like this is a low blow.

To Trump’s credit, he did sign an executive order in December stating “stop price fixing, anti-competitive behavior, and foreign influence that drives up grocery prices and threatens the security of America’s food supply.” Unfortunately, actions are louder than words. Who will not be hurt by importing beef to Americans? The meatpackers. According to Farm Action, the top four meatpackers control 80-85% of beef processing. After finally taking it on the chin with the high cattle prices, the meatpackers get an out with this imported beef. This can lead to potentially depressed prices farmers receive for their cattle.

The worst part of it is the meatpackers helped lead to this multi-decade low in the cattle herd. According to the USDA, “Trends in farm-to-wholesale spreads since 2016 suggest that packers have been able to reduce prices paid for cattle with help from a combination of high concentration and limited packing plant capacity. The efforts of ranchers and cattle feeders to enter packing with plants of their own further suggests a deterioration of competition in recent years as it indicates dissatisfaction with the prices that ranchers and feeders have been receiving from packers.”

The repeal of Country-of-Origin Labeling in 2015 also did not help. This allowed meatpackers to legally import cheap beef from other counties and sell it under a domestic label according to the Coalition for a Prosperous America. Meatpackers have also been accused of price-fixing. JBS paid out $83.5 million in their latest price-fixing settlement where along with Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef, colluded to suppress ranch-gate bids and inflate downstream margins.

Despite all the benefits the meatpackers have enjoyed over the years, their “efficiency” has not led to better prices for farmers or lower prices for consumers. It seems like the middleman is the only one enjoying this situation. Until any administration and Congress take on the meatpackers and make the conditions to raise cattle more optimal for farmers or to bring new cattle producers into the fold, expect the beef herd to stay low. The current conditions the meatpackers helped create lead to less diversified farms which severely impact rural communities.

Despite America’s historic role as a leader in the beef industry, American beef producers are being left behind. According to AgWeb, “the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) responded at the time with a strong warning, criticizing the President’s approach. NCBA CEO Colin Woodall says the plan risked ‘damaging the livelihoods of American cattlemen and women, while doing little to impact the price consumers are paying at the grocery store.'”

While the Trump administration says as their last point on the fact sheet about their executive order being “The Administration is committed to reducing risk for cattle producers, supporting new ranchers across the country, and ensuring ranchers are prosperous now and into the future,” this action of importing Argentinian beef goes against this ideal. This reduction of the beef herd did not start under Trump and will not end under Trump. To create prosperous conditions for new and current cattle ranchers, it starts with breaking up the meatpackers and not importing beef. We did it before, and we can do it again.

Sean Dengler is a writer, comedian, now-retired beginning farmer, and host of the Pandaring Talk podcast who grew up on a farm between Traer and Dysart. You can reach him at sean.h.dengler@gmail.com.