ANTWERP, New York (WWNY) – A North Country beef farmer says President Trump’s plan to drop tariffs on ground beef imports is “theater” that alienates rural Americans.
Farmer says plan alienates rural Americans
Colter Whitmore is a part-time beef farmer in Antwerp who runs Whitmore Family Farm.
“We’ve been doing it now for almost 10 years,” Whitmore said.
His meat mostly stays local, but sometimes a small portion of it is sold in the open market where it could be found in grocery stores across the Northeast.
Whitmore is skeptical of Trump’s plan and doesn’t believe it will actually lower prices.
“I firmly believe it’s just for theater, and it’s just to cater to certain people. In the meantime, I think it’s alienated the entire rural population, the makeup of people that have cattle that are frustrated with what’s going on,” Whitmore said.
Whitmore said he sees a disconnect between the plan and the president’s messaging to rural voters.
“The sad part is a lot of people voted for the president on these ‘America first’ things, right? And I don’t know if he’s putting the American farmer first, the American rancher, dairy, beef – it doesn’t matter. When you do something like this, that’s not putting people first, in our opinion,” Whitmore said.
Trump plan aims to lower ground beef prices
The price of ground beef is rising nationwide, spurred by strong demand and a shrinking domestic cattle population.
President Trump is trying to bring prices down with a new deal allowing 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported with no “out-of-quota” tariff for three months.
He says the imported beef will be sold at 25% lower than current market prices.
“He is working to fill a gap, a pretty big gap in the supply chain from ground beef,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
Farm organizations also push back
State and national farming organizations are also pushing back against the president’s planned move.
New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said, “While President Trump’s intent to remove tariffs on imported beef might temporarily lower grocery prices, it will have a crushing effect on our already fragile domestic beef market.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is also disappointed by the president’s statement. The group said in a statement, “Flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd.”
Administration defends plan
The Trump administration says the plan will cut prices for consumers while giving space for the American beef herd to grow again.
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