“I’ve asked the Justice Department to look into it. … I’ve asked them to take a very serious look into it, because it shouldn’t be happening that way and we want to protect our farmers,” the president told reporters at a White House event attended by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
“Are they dealing with each other? What’s going on?” the president asked.
I could save Trump and the U.S. taxpayers a lot of money. The answer is simple. There are a lot of cattle ready for slaughter, but not enough packing plants able to take them all, so the price dropped.
At the other end, Americans want to buy beef and pork and there's not enough coming out of packing plants that are either shut down or forced to operate at 50 to 70 per cent of capacity to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Simple: supply and demand. Nobody needs to collude to get cattle prices any lower, or meat prices higher.
Trump has ordered meat packing plants to remain open, but there is such a shortage of beef that the biggest supermarket chains – Kroger and Walmart – are limiting amounts shoppers can buy and Wendy’s fast-food chain has dropped hamburgers from the menus of many of its stores.
Trump didn't need to say or do anything. There's enough profit incentive to keep packing plant owners doing all they can reasonably do to keep operating. But they must also be worried about any worker who contracts COVID-19 at work. I don't envy them.
