The Current US Cattle Industry

Did you know 51 metric tons of meat a week is being imported into the US from overseas and is being marketed as a product of the USA? The US cattle industry is at an all time low after droves of ranchers had to liquidate their herd or sell their farms in the last few years as a result of things like extreme drought, feed costs rising and inflation.

Beef prices are at an all time high, which drives the price of beef up - but this isn’t a good thing for ranchers - this just means that the 4 large corporations who control 85% of the US beef market (2 of them Brazilian owned) will import meat from other countries where they can source it cheaper. Because of our own laws - if it’s repackaged in any way (i.e. cut into portions or mixed into ground beef) it is labeled as a product of the USA.

This is especially scary for ground beef on the grocery store shelves that can come from multiple countries, be different ages and breeds of older cows and fed any sort of untraceable diet. The meat can be harvested in other countries and that trim can be frozen for who knows how long. It can be imported in droves, then thawed and mixed in a vat in a large processing plant with literally hundreds of different DNA samples landing in one pound of ground beef.

Importing and exporting is not the problem. Americans like their hamburgers, but not hearts! Traditional export markets are good for ranchers to get a premium for the unusual cuts that are more widely desired in foreign markets. The American cattle industry has declined to a point that we don’t have enough beef to supply the US fast food and ground beef supply chain. But, the American consumer deserves to know where their meat comes from and how it was raised.

There is an answer… but directly from a rancher in the United States. Find a ranch you can buy from locally or one who ships to your doorstep and start ordering now! More and more ranches are finishing their cattle (that otherwise would change hands 6-10 times in ownership if raised for the wholesale market) themselves and working hard to sell direct to consumers. They are taking time to share their practices and families on social media. Get to know them, connect with them, and order from them!

We have a list of trusted ranches HERE.