We are living through exceptional times. We all live with a set of beliefs and no amount of evidence will persuade those that refuse to be open-minded or use their brains. Yes, I am talking about how President Donald Trump can say one thing one day, another thing the next day and something altogether different on the third day yet if any one of those ramblings match up to what someone wants to consider the truth, then they champion his cause.
For two consecutive Fridays now, he has made a Truth Social post that set the cattle world on fire. Last week, it was about the importation of more boxed beef in 2026 when we are already at 60% of our 2025 imports and 400% above 2024. Last Friday, he said he had just learned that a meat packer monopoly exists in the United States. The big 4 have too much control and farmers, “CAN’T EVEN PROCESS THEIR OWN FOOD.” What does that even mean?
For the record, farmers/ranchers have been processing their own food since before this country started 250 years ago. In addition, you can sell directly from your farm/ranch through local butcher shops with either Custom Exempt or with a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection. We have worked hard to sell direct since 2017 and marketed our livestock in a manner that never allowed them into the hands of one of the Big 4 packers. So why is he getting his information from someone like commentator Glenn Beck instead of building a team in the USDA that understands food production in this country?
He was supposedly just informed about a meat packer monopoly, yet during his second term as president, the Federal Trade Commission fined Tyson and Cargill $87.5 million for price fixing meat products in May as a result of a class action lawsuit.
Oh, but wait that happened in the same month that Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced:
DOJ, USDA Ramp Up Antitrust Investigation Into “Big 4″ Beef Packers
The investigation has already been done and the answer is yes, they do fix prices on products all the time, in my opinion. For example, right now Tyson has shut down the harvest of 28,000 head of cattle daily in the U.S. since January.
But let’s take a look at Trump’s statement about helping farmers/ranchers eat their own products. In 2022, the Biden administration, with Secretary of Ag Tom Vilsack at the helm of the USDA, announced and distributed $655 million to small butcher shops to add competition to the marketplace. In 2024, another round of funding amounting to $110 million was given to 57 small butcher shops to help expand markets and increase competition. In fact, Vilsack said:
The funding will help “this effort to expand significantly opportunities for local and regional food systems, all of which help to provide lower costs for working families, create a more resilient food system and help opportunities for farmers to have more new and better markets.”
On June 3, Rollins and the current USDA announced a $60 million investment to Support Small Meat and Poultry Plants saying the Small Processors Action Plan will strengthen a strong, safe, and local American food supply.
On June 30, Rollins issued yet another press release:
Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced the Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR) Program that will provide temporary support for eligible beef processing establishments. Under SPUR, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide up to $500 million in payments to eligible entities to support stronger and more stable market opportunities for American ranchers.
Finally, Trump figures out, on Aug. 28, thanks to a conversation with Beck, that farmers/ranchers need help. Honestly, what do you expect from the Trump team when Rollins took credit for rolling out a Voluntary “Product of the USA,” label which was actually finalized in March of 2024 under Vilsack:
USDA Finalizes Voluntary “Product of USA” Label Claim to Enhance Consumer Protection
Phoenix, Ariz., March 11, 2024 – Today, at the National Farmers Union Annual Convention, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the finalization of a rule to align the voluntary “Product of USA” label claim with consumer understanding of what the claim means. Secretary Vilsack also announced USDA is awarding $9.5 million to 42 projects through the Local Meat Capacity grant program to expand processing options for the meat and poultry industry and new actions to ensure transparency and a fair and competitive market in the U.S seed industry.
The funding will help “this effort to expand significantly opportunities for local and regional food systems, all of which help to provide lower costs for working families, create a more resilient food system and help opportunities for farmers to have more new and better markets,” Vilsack said.
No amount of government money is going to fix this monopoly problem. Dismantling the USDA and immediately stopping grants, subsidies and tax credits is the only opportunity we have to maintain freedom, in my opinion. At this point we have nothing more than a rooster crowing at dawn and taking credit for the sunrise.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of agriculture. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com or email Trent at [email protected].
PHOTO: The U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington D.C. (Photo by Malachi Witt via Pixabay.)
