{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/trump-accuses-foreign-owned-meat-packers-inflating-us-beef-prices-and-calls-investigation", "Trump accuses foreign-owned meat-packers of inflating U.S. beef prices and calls for investigation", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "MS", "Cindy Hyde-Smith", "H001079", "www.hydesmith.senate.gov", "hydesmith", "https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/newsroom", "scraper", "By Darlene Superville and Steve Karnowski\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump accused foreign-owned meat-packers of driving up the price of beef in the United States and asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation.\n\nThe Republican president announced the move on social media days after his party suffered losses in key elections in which the winning Democratic candidates focused relentlessly on the public\u2019s concerns about the cost of living.\n\nBut experts said it\u2019s unlikely that an investigation would result in lower prices at grocery stores, and a trade group representing meat-packers said they\u2019re not to blame.\n\nTrump did not present evidence for his claims, writing on social media that \u201cI have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation.\u201d\n\nHe said he was taking the action to help ranchers, who were recently angered by his suggestion that the United States would buy Argentine beef to bring down stubbornly high prices for American consumers.\n\n\u201cWe will always protect our American Ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by Majority Foreign Owned Meat Packers, who artificially inflate prices, and jeopardize the security of our Nation\u2019s food supply,\u201d Trump said.\n\nWhy Beef Prices Have Climbed\n\nBeef prices have soared to record levels in part after drought and years of low prices led to the smallest U.S. herd size in decades. Trump\u2019s tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter, have also curbed imports.\n\nMeanwhile, demand for beef remains strong. Prices are high because consumers want to eat it, and they\u2019re willing and able to pay for it, said Glynn Tonsor, who leads the Meat Demand Monitor at Kansas State University.\n\nTonsor said the ownership mix in the meatpacking industry has not changed significantly in the past four years.\n\nConcentration in the meatpacking business has been a longtime concern for farmers and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Four major meatpacking companies dominate the beef market in the United States.\n\nThere\u2019s no evidence to back up claims that the big packers have undue market power and use it to drive up beef prices, said Derrell Peel, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University.\n\n\u201cThe packing industry in this country has been investigated and researched for 50 years, and it\u2019s been an issue for over a hundred years, at least, for some producers,\u201d Peel said, expressing skepticism that consumers or producers will benefit from the investigation Trump announced.\n\n\u201cIf the outcome is to break up the big packers, the outcome will be higher beef prices for consumers and lower cattle prices for producers,\u201d Peel said.\n\nMeat-Packers Say They\u2019re Getting Pinched By High Prices\n\nOklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said on Nov. 7 that he and fellow Republican senators Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi and Tim Sheehy of Montana visited the White House earlier in the day to speak with Trump about recent volatility in the beef market. Mullin said Trump agreed to have the Justice Department look at the issue.\n\nMullin blamed meat processors, saying that \u201cwe\u2019re seeing the same exact game play again out\u201d as a 2019 lawsuit against large meat-packers for violating antitrust laws.\n\nJBS, which is based in Brazil, is the largest U.S. beef producer and its second-largest producer of poultry and pork. Half of its annual revenue comes from the United States, where it has more than 72,000 employees.\n\nThe company has faced price-fixing charges before. In 2022, JBS agreed to a $52.5 million settlement with grocery stores and wholesalers who accused JBS, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods and other companies of working together to suppress the number of cattle being slaughtered in order to drive up beef prices.\n\nJBS did not admit wrongdoing as part of that settlement. Messages seeking comment were left with JBS USA.\n\nSen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., recently called on the administration to renew an investigation into meat-packers that was opened in Trump\u2019s first term. Cramer\u2019s office said he has pushed for such a probe since March 2020.\n\nThe Meat Institute, a trade group that represents JBS and other meat producers, said its industry is being pinched by the price of cattle, despite record prices for U.S. beef.\n\n\u201cFor more than a year, beef packers have been operating at a loss due to a tight cattle supply and strong demand,\u201d Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts said in a statement.\n\n\u201cThe beef industry is heavily regulated, and market transactions are transparent. The government\u2019s own data from USDA confirms that the beef-packing sector is experiencing catastrophic losses and experts predict this will continue into 2026.\u201d\n\nTrump\u2019s accusations have renewed a bipartisan presidential fight against rising food prices.\n\nThen-President Joe Biden talked with independent farmers and ranchers about initiatives to reduce food prices by increasing competition within the meat industry.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hydesmith.senate.gov/trump-accuses-foreign-owned-meat-packers-inflating-us-beef-prices-and-calls-investigation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3407031074166298, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}