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By Shawn Harris
Cattle Farmer and Candidate for Congress in Georgia’s 14th District
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I raise cattle in northwest Georgia. So, when President Donald Trump announced that the United States would bring in over 661 million pounds of foreign beef over 90 days with lower tariffs, I took it personally.
I recently told CBS News that this decision could push ranchers like me out of business and it won’t do anything to lower prices at the grocery store. I wasn’t exaggerating.
I’ve got beef with Trump’s plan because American farmers are paying the price. I’ve got beef with NWGA’s Representative Clay Fuller because he’s remained silent on an issue deeply impacting our communities.
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America’s herd is at its lowest level in decades. Ranchers have been hit by droughts, high input costs for feed, diesel, fertilizer and other supplies. Raising cattle takes planning, money and years of work. Farmers don’t make decisions one week at a time. When prices become unpredictable and the cost of keeping cattle keeps climbing, farmers may decide they cannot afford to keep as many animals. That would make our cattle shortage even worse.
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But that’s not the only issue. The monopoly in the meatpacking industry is a big part of the reason we’re in this situation. The ”Big 4” meat packers control more than 85 percent of all the beef processed. They set the price the farmer gets for his cattle, and the price people pay at the grocery store. No regional hubs. No competition. The industry is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for alleged price fixing, among other antitrust violations.
This is killing the family run cattle operations, and it doesn’t need to be this way.
We should enforce our antitrust laws and create more competition among meat processors. We should create local and regional meat processing hubs so farmers have more choices about where they sell their cattle. We should give independent producers more opportunities to sell directly to consumers. And we should make it easier for small and family farms to stay in business.
That means making sure farmers have fair access to programs that help with basic infrastructure, such as fencing and wells. It means investing in rural water systems and helping farmers prepare for drought. It means making sure rural communities have access to large-animal veterinarians. These are investments in the people who produce the food we all depend on.
Across the country, young people are learning about agriculture through 4-H and FFA. They're raising animals, learning how to care for the land and discovering that agriculture can be a career. We have to strengthen those programs, create more agricultural internship opportunities and expand Farm to School programs that connect local farmers with local schools.
If we want American agriculture to have a future, young people need to see a future in it. And if we want to rebuild America's cattle herd, we need to make sure farmers can afford to do it.
I've spent most of my adult life serving this country. After 40 years in the Army, I came home and became a cattle farmer. Both jobs taught me the same lesson: when something isn't working, you find the real problem, listen to the people dealing with it, and fix it.
Beef prices are too high and families deserve relief. But we won’t solve that problem by making it harder for farmers to stay in business. We can lower costs for families without sacrificing the farmers who put food on their tables.
Republicans need to stand up to President Trump, tell him to stop looking for the best sound bite and start addressing the actual market issues that are hurting farmers and gouging consumers.
Let’s give young people a reason to build their future in agriculture. And give American cattle producers the tools needed to rebuild the herd ourselves.
Shawn Harris is a cattle farmer, retired U.S. Army brigadier general and Democratic candidate for Congress in Georgia’s 14th District.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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