Montana Cattlemen's Association Press Release
Release Date: July 24, 2026
Contact person: Gilles Stockton
(406) 428-2183
Email: gillesstockton@gmail.com
Despite a nationwide coordinated effort by livestock and farm organizations, the Farm Bill draft does not include restoring Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for beef. We were hopeful because Senate Majority Leader Thune of South Dakota sponsored the “American Beef Labeling Act” and can include whatever he likes in the Farm Bill. It now looks to be just another Empty Promise!
Labeling beef at retail as to country of origin allows consumers to make informed decisions while providing market transparency for cattle ranchers. All other foods carry a label revealing the country of origin. However, in 2015, Congress specifically exempted beef, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue for cattle ranchers, independent feeders, and rural America, while defrauding consumers.
Recently, Senator Cassidy of Louisiana proposed the “Home Market Restoration Act,” which would impose higher quotas and tariffs on imported beef, something that cattle producers would like to see passed. Twenty-two percent (22%) of beef offered at retail is imported, but because consumers are not allowed to know the country of origin of beef imports, it sells for the same price as domestically raised beef. This is even though imported meat has tested for hormones and growth promoters banned in the US, and the sanitary conditions in many foreign packing plants are substandard.
Given that the United States Congress refuses to let consumers know the country of origin of their beef, it is not realistic to expect Congress to impose higher tariffs. Retail beef prices are currently high relative to chicken and pork, and the pressure on Congress and the Administration is to lower prices by importing more beef.
Part of the reason for high retail beef prices is that there are no longer enough cattle in this country to meet consumer demand. In addition, live cattle imports from Mexico have been blocked to prevent the spread of a screwworm infestation, further reducing the available cattle. Therefore, importing more beef is an attractive option for politicians desperate to reduce retail beef prices; however, given the market power of the cattle packing cartel and the retail super giants, this has little chance of working.
When Congress rescinded country of origin for beef back in 2015, cattle prices immediately collapsed by forty percent (40%). For the ensuing seven years, cattle prices were less than the cost of raising them. Consequently, ranchers lost billions of dollars, and up to a hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) failed. While ranchers were struggling and unable to afford replacing their aging cows, the beef packer and the retail oligopoly made record profits. All because the market for cattle and retail beef is no longer transparent or competitive.
Beginning in 2020, the western United States suffered a severe drought, causing ranchers to cut back even more on their herds. It is a hard but sometimes necessary decision to sell perfectly good cows for slaughter when there is not enough pasture or hay to feed them. The drought years were bad not just for ranchers because everyone lived in a perpetual cloud of smoke, and too many houses, including whole cities, burned to the ground.
Meanwhile, the beef packer and the supermarket oligopolies made even more of a killing. In 2022, Senator Chuck Grassley revealed that beef packers were clearing $1,200 per head after owning steers for only two weeks. This is while the cattle ranchers who had raised these steers over the previous year and a half were going out of business. Senator Grassley’s “Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act,” which would have helped to restore competition to the cattle market, went nowhere.
The upshot is this country now has the lowest cattle numbers in nearly a century while retail beef prices are the highest ever. Because our economy is in an inflationary period, politicians and consumers are panicking. In an effort to reduce retail beef prices, the President authorized more beef imports from Argentina and Brazil even though beef from these countries has tested for banned substances, their packing plants are not necessarily well regulated, and some of their cattle are infested with Foot and Mouth Disease.
The potential introduction of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) creates additional risk to American cattle producers. We don’t need FMD, in addition to the screwworms wiggling their way north from Mexico. Regardless of the President’s wish to lower retail beef prices, more beef imports from South America have had little impact because the market structure is broken. The beef packing and meat retailing cartels overcharge consumers and underpay producers. On top of all the above, the El Niño weather phenomenon is promising to be the most intense ever and shall result in extreme weather, causing drought in some areas and floods in others.
Admittedly, US cattle ranchers are finally experiencing high cattle prices, which should encourage the expansion of cattle herds. However, given the uncertainty in the climate, many ranchers are afraid to retain more heifers. Ranchers also have long memories. In the past, every brief period of high cattle prices ended in a market crash. The ranchers who got overly optimistic lost everything.
This whole mess can be blamed on Congress and the White House. In 2015, when they rescinded country-of-origin labeling of beef, they refused to restore market competition to the beef industry. Although we can’t blame Washington for El Niño or drought, we can blame them for not preparing this country to withstand extreme weather events. We can also blame them for allowing excessive beef imports with little sanitary oversight. In addition, we can blame them for inadequate protection from foreign diseases. Ultimately, we can blame them for ignoring the needs of rural America. Instead, what we have been getting are a lot of Empty Promises.
The political system and the economic interests that control Washington are habituated to the notion that they do not have to deliver on their promises to family agriculture and rural communities. That may be immensely profitable for Wall Street and the industrial agriculture complex, but it is not in the long-term interests of farmers and consumers. We in production agriculture bear our share of responsibility because, time and again, we let Washington get away with Empty Promises. It is time for farmers, ranchers, and consumers to hold Congress and the Presidency to account:
Call Senator Thune (202 224-2321) and tell him that you and everyone else want to buy beef- Born and Raised in the USA.
Gilles Stockton
Grass Range, Montana
