Farm Action is tracking prices across the beef supply chain for every day of this 90-day plan.
60 days in, the numbers show ranchers taking the hit while meatpackers cash in.
We'll release a final assessment when the plan ends on Nov. 30.
Read our full report: https://t.co/MNM914tfAD
"It certainly looks like the big packers captured our president."
That's what this Wyoming rancher told Cowboy State Daily.
He was pointing to the CEO of JBS, one of the world's largest meatpacking companies, visiting the White House the day before President Trump announced his 90-day beef import plan.
The plan opened the door to 300,000 metric tons of cheap imported beef trim.
It came with a promise that grocery prices would fall and American ranchers would be protected.
Farm Action has tracked prices since the plan took effect on Sept. 1.
As Cowboy State Daily reports, our analysis found that ranchers are getting nearly 20% less for cows used in ground beef.
For a rancher selling a 1,200-pound cow, that comes to about $319 less per animal.
Meanwhile, meatpackers are paying 16.6% less for lean beef, and shoppers are saving only pennies at the grocery store.
When a handful of giant corporations control the beef supply chain, ranchers and consumers both lose.
Source: @daily_cowboy
“The U.S. cattle herd has fallen to its lowest level since 1951.”
Restoring MCOOL is only the first step to restoring the domestic cattle herd.
But it is a critical step that will empower American ranchers to compete against the multinational corporations that dominate our beef industry. https://t.co/EWlc0WFmeO
Fifth-generation farmer Jenni Harris just revealed how imported foreign beef almost crushed her family farm.
“In 2015, Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling [MCOOL] in beef was rescinded.”
“Imported beef started showing up.”
“But it was labeled Product of the USA.”
“It was the biggest single event that decreased our volume and… decreased our margin.”
“There was no longer the ability to look at a package of beef and tell where the animal was born and raised and slaughtered.”
The damage went far beyond her family farm @whiteoakpasture.
She sees the repeal of MCOOL as a key factor in the shrinking of the domestic cattle herd.
That, in turn, weakened domestic food security and ranchers’ power to compete against multinational corporations like JBS.
In January 2026, the first step towards reforming this broken system was implemented.
“The ability to label imported beef as a Product of the USA went away.”
But it didn’t go far enough.
It didn’t require the country of origin to be labeled at all.
We have spent years fighting for MCOOL to be restored alongside ranchers, and Jenni says that the progress is clear.
“There’s been more talk about reinstating [MCOOL] in Congress this year than there has been in the previous 10 years or so.”
MCOOL is the first step of our plan to restore the domestic cattle herd and lower beef prices for consumers.
This simple labeling change would do more to help ranchers than most people realize.
Read our full plan below:🧵
Source: Fitness Confidential Podcast with @VinnieTortorich
Rural communities are fighting back!
In a separate fight just up the road, the small farm town of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, banded together and voted to stop a $900 million data center.
Read how they did it: https://t.co/vw4vOlur3X
These Ohio farmers have worked their land for more than 40 years.
Now a massive data center is planned for the property right next door.
"I expected to come out to the country and live out our life."
"At 70 years old, this is all gonna go away, and we're gonna see nothing but destruction."
"I'm really sad about it."
Families who spent their lives building a farm are watching powerful corporations decide what happens to the land, their water, and their community.
Source: @CNN
“This ruling weakens protections for farmers, farmworkers, and the public.”
“And it sets a dangerous precedent for other corporations seeking similar immunity.”
Read our statement breaking down the consequences of the pesticide liability shield below: https://t.co/Po8nqQMNL6
This podcast was a bombshell.
@calleymeans just went on @joerogan and revealed why the fight over the pesticide liability shield is even more insane than you think.
Bookmark this.
“I wasn’t in there to argue for unreasonable things.”
“We can’t ban this stuff tomorrow.”
“It was about whether people could sue if they get cancer.”
“In a free market, to me, that’s the perfect dynamic.”
“There needs to be, in a free market, recourse if it’s causing harm.”
“By cutting that out, it’s actually an assault on the market.”
This speaks to the same root problem that farmers are facing across the country.
The free market is under assault from consolidated corporate power.
Multinational corporations are abusing their market power and government influence to further entrench their monopolistic power and push family farms out of business.
This isn’t about banning glyphosate or any other pesticide.
It’s that every farmer deserves the right to sue corporations when they are injured by pesticides.
And they deserve the right to run an organic, regenerative farm without pesticides if they choose to.
We strongly urge the new Congress to restore farmers’ rights to hold pesticide corporations accountable in 2027.
Find out everything you need to know about the real impact of this pesticide liability shield below:🧵
Source: @joerogan
Farm Action is fighting for independent farmers, ranchers, and consumers across the country.
We're on the front lines of the fight against corporate monopolies driving small farms out of business.
Take 30 seconds to join our newsletter below: https://t.co/Ko7d3RfyDB
"I think younger generations have been, for quite a while, encouraged to, if you can, go to college and do something different."
These two Montana ranchers are watching young people raised on ranches leave for jobs in town.
"I think, generally, it's an economic question."
"They can just make an easier living, more money, much less time committed, leaving and going to work in town.”
Ranching didn't become less viable on its own. A handful of giant meatpackers control most of the beef market, which lets them dictate what ranchers get paid for their cattle while they keep more of the profits for themselves.
When corporations take such a large cut, ranch work stops paying enough to support a family, and the next generation is pushed off the land they grew up on.
Source: World Within Studios
BREAKING:
We just exposed the real impact of Trump’s foreign beef imports.
Trump promised imported beef would be sold at “25% below market value.”
60 days later, prices have fallen just 2.4%.
And American ranchers are receiving nearly 20% less for cattle.
Bookmark this.
For a rancher selling a 1,200-pound cow, that translates to over $300 less in revenue per animal.
There’s only one winner from Trump’s beef import policy:
The big corporate meatpackers.
Wholesale prices for domestic lean processing beef have fallen 16.6%, allowing meatpackers to purchase beef at substantially lower prices.
But those savings aren't reaching consumers at the same rate.
Why?
Corporate consolidation.
A small handful of power corporations control nearly every aspect of the beef supply chain.
Their control restricts competition and allows companies between ranchers and consumers to pocket any savings.
With all of the savings being pocketed by intermediaries, consumers are saving mere pennies on the dollar.
And American ranchers are struggling more than ever.
These losses threaten more than just ranchers’ immediate profitability.
The U.S. cattle herd is already at historically low levels.
Now, falling cattle prices will further discourage the investment needed to rebuild the herd.
Trump’s beef import policy has not delivered relief for consumers or strengthened American agriculture.
It has weakened domestic producers and risks increasing our dependence on imported beef.
Read our full 60-day analysis on Trump’s beef import policy below:🧵
The election changed who holds power in Washington.
Whether it changes who holds economic power is still up to Congress.
Read Farm Action's full breakdown of what this moment means for farmers, families, and the fight against corporate monopolies:
https://t.co/q4gCQWhQG2
Voters demanded change in the 2026 election.
Now Washington has to deliver.
Democrats flipped control of Congress and won in rural districts and states long considered Republican strongholds, after an administration that promised lower prices failed to bring them down.
But this frustration isn't new.
For years, Americans have swung power back and forth between both parties, and the same problems keep coming back.
For decades, corporate power in food and agriculture grew under Republicans and Democrats alike.
A handful of corporations now control the diesel, fertilizer, seed, and equipment farmers depend on, leaving them with little bargaining power over what they pay or what they're paid.
Families feel it at the grocery store, too.
Cheaper imported beef helped the biggest meatpackers, while shoppers saw little relief and American ranchers got paid less for their cattle.
Several winners, including James Talarico in Texas and Josh Turek in Iowa, ran on taking on monopolies and restoring fair competition—and voters rewarded them.
Now the new Congress has a choice.
It can confront corporate concentration, or it can let a change in party control turn into more of the same.
The real test isn't which party runs Washington.
It's whether farmers get fair prices and families can afford the food they need.
We published a 7-point plan to lower beef prices and restore the domestic cattle herd that is backed by ranchers, not corporations.
Bookmark this.
Read our plan below: https://t.co/GcXMc9pJ7V
“We have lost over half of all cattle producers just in… a generation.”
“We’ve lost over 100,000 just since 2017 through 2022.”
“We’ve lost millions of cows from our cow herd.”
“We’ve lost tens of thousands of feed lots.”
“The industry is in a crisis.”
R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard is sounding the alarm.
“Beef prices were rising even while cattle prices were falling throughout the period from 2017 to 2021.”
“Then the President decides to increase the importation of beef to the tune of 300,000 metric tons.”
“The beef that we are going to import is going to compete directly with the cows that cattle producers are selling now.”
“These producers are going to be challenged in order to meet their production costs and their economic costs.”
“Even while we have these record-high cattle prices, producers are just now beginning to recover some of the losses on the operating side.”
“They have still not received the full economic costs of maintaining a ranching operation.”
“That’s why we’ve lost so many hundreds of thousands.”
“This is a very serious situation for cattle producers.”
“Even with these higher prices, we’re continuing to see an exodus of U.S. ranchers from our domestic food industry.”
“That is a threat to national security.”
This situation cannot meaningfully improve until Washington tackles two massive issues:
Corporate consolidation and the collapse of the domestic cattle herd.
And these problems fuel one another.
Increased consolidation squeezes independent ranchers out of business, decreasing the cattle herd even further.
And every decrease in the cattle herd hands multinational corporate producers even greater market power.
@RCALFUSA@RMConservative
We're fighting the biggest corporate monopolies in agriculture on behalf of independent farmers and ranchers across the country.
They need our support now more than ever.
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on our mission: https://t.co/Ko7d3Rg6t9
"That doesn't sound like America to me."
This California farmer built his own independent farm and sells mostly to local, independently owned grocery stores.
He says large corporations have approached him to grow their varieties and pack them in their packaging.
"You're just a number and if you're a bigger number, you're in charge of all these little numbers."
He's refusing to give up his independence.
"That's not the America that I want to be part of."
Independent farmers deserve a fair shot, not a food system run by a handful of corporations.
Source: @NBCNews
Independent farmers need our support now more than ever.
Corporate monopolies are putting farms out of business every day.
Subscribe to our newsletter below to keep up with our fight: https://t.co/Ko7d3Rg6t9
This fifth-generation farmer just warned the future of farming is “bleak.”
Jenni Harris: “The average age of a farmer is… 60-something.”
“It is a… dying career.”
“Farms are selling to developers.”
“You hear suicide rates.”
“And farms that sell out.”
@VinnieTortorich: “How do you guys make a living?”
Jenni’s family farm @whiteoakpasture goes back to 1866.
“We had to radically change what we did.”
“For us, revenue is very diversified.”
“We had to put processing in.”
“We had to brand our product.”
“We are in the direct-to-consumer business shipping meat.”
“We are in the tourism business.”
“This is a hard time to be in agriculture and it’s a hard time to be a consumer.”
“Prices are high.”
“Input costs are high.”
“Which is ultimately taken away from your profit.”
Source: Fitness Confidential Podcast