Beef prices keep climbing, but small ranchers aren’t seeing the profits. So where is the money going?
Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck believes the answer lies in an industry dominated by a small number of meat-processing companies and a regulatory system that makes it nearly impossible for smaller competitors to enter the market.
And during a conversation with President Donald Trump, he let him know.
“Please when it comes to beef, please look at the cartel that is the meat-processing cartel,” Glenn tells Trump.
“I run a ranch, so I know what it’s like. And I’m telling you, it is the processing plants.”
“There’s four of them, and I think two of them are not even American. It’s bad. And I believe they’re colluding with each other,” he adds.
“I’m surprised because that’s been going on a long time, Glenn. Long before I got here,” Trump interjects.
“Help us. ... We can’t butcher with all of the federal regulations. It is really hard,” he says, noting that the “inspections are insane.”
“Break the back of those processing plants though. There’s people that want to build processing plants everywhere. The regulations are killing us, just killing us,” he adds.
“So you’re saying with less regulation, you think that the ranchers and farmers would do a very good job of processing the beef?” Trump asks.
“Yes,” Glenn answers.
And it’s not just Glenn who’s noticed the issue regulations are causing small farms and ranches, as a caller from West Virginia called in to share his story when it comes to the agriculture industry.
“My father was a farm veterinarian for 51 years,” he tells Glenn. “Over my entire lifetime, I have watched the complete destruction of the agriculture industry everywhere. From what chemicals you can use to where you take your cows to you name it.”
“Complete destruction. West Virginia passed a law that people might like. It’s called the farm-to-table law. They bypass the USDA. They have to meet West Virginia standards. But we got a lot of farm-to-table stores here now and completely bypass that whole ag industry,” he adds.
Glenn is hopeful that after bringing the issue up to President Trump, they might see more similar changes in the future.
“Anything that we can do to give relief to our ranchers and our farmers on regulation, which is what the president and I spoke about today, and hopefully he will act on it,” Glenn says.
“People are tired of all this processed food, not knowing where it comes from. I know if my ranch, if I could slaughter the beef and have standards obviously, but slaughter the beef, cut the beef, and sell it in the local grocery store, we’d save a ton of money on meat,” he continues.
“Right now, I think we sell my cattle, I think, in Denver, and then they’re finished off with grain someplace else ... and then they’re slaughtered. I mean, I don’t even know where they go. It’s insane. It’s stupid ... and it’s these big processing plants, man. That’s the problem,” he adds.
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