By Brian Beach
After receiving backlash from ranchers over a potential beef deal with Argentina, the Trump administration unveiled a plan this week to “fortify the American beef industry.”
The new policy plan, announced by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Wednesday, focuses on three priorities – protecting and improving the business of ranching, expanding processing, consumer transparency and market access, and building demand alongside domestic supply.
According to the USDA, the national herd is at a 75-year low, and the country has lost more than 150,000 cattle operations since 2017. At the same time, demand has grown by around 9% in the past decade, leading to record high beef prices.