U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended President Donald Trump’s decision to allow more imported ground beef into the country, saying it will help Americans shrink their grocery bills.

At the same time, Iowa and U.S. farm groups criticized the move, saying it undercuts American producers, hurting cattle markets and discouraging herd expansion.

Rollins said her boss’s top priority is to shrink food costs for American families, and importing lean trimmings will slash consumer prices by 25%.

“We’re going to see that cost of ground beef go down,” Rollins told reporters at the Iowa State Fair Friday, Aug. 21, after meeting with Iowa grain farmers and livestock producers.

Trump announced on social media early Friday, Aug. 21, that he’s allowing 300,000 metric tons of “products for ground beef” to be imported to the U.S. to “substantially lower the price of ground beef for working families.”

“We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again.”

Iowa’s congressional Republicans voiced concerns Friday. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is in a tight race to replace U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, said it’s a “bad idea, the way we’re trying to handle this.

“It should be driven by market conditions,” said Hinson, who Trump endorsed for Ernst’s job last year. “The herd is at a 70-year low, and we need to be doing everything we can to support our Iowa cattlemen in what they do.”

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Friday that he’s concerned about the impact of Trump’s decision to “temporarily open up subsidized beef imports” on U.S. cattle markets, especially after meatpacking giant Tyson Foods closed an Illinois plant that eastern Iowa cattle producers relied on to buy their livestock.

And U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, who appeared with Rollins Friday, said he agreed with Trump that food needs to be more affordable for Americans, but cautioned that it not be done “on the backs of our cattlemen.”

Iowa cattle producers taking another hit with beef imports

Craig Moss, president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association board, said the announcement Friday roiled cattle markets, impacting producers’ “profitability and bottom line” and their decisions about expanding herds.

“We believe the government should avoid intervention and let the market work,” Moss said, adding that Iowa producers already are struggling with a plant in Illinois closing, leaving them with one less buyer. About 55% of the Roslin plant’s livestock came from eastern Iowa, the group said earlier this week.

“Today they are taking another hit with this announcement,” Moss said.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement that the U.S. is already importing beef at record levels. “This decision would be an unprecedented move and would translate to nearly an additional 60% increase in imports over the next 90 days,” said Duvall, a Georgia farmer who raises cattle and chickens.

“For almost a year now, we’ve been advising the administration that America’s ranchers are working to rebuild beef herds that had to be sold off due to drought,” Duvall said. “Despite high beef prices in grocery stores, prices paid to farmers and ranchers for their cattle have fallen sharply over the past two months, and beef packing plants are shutting down across the U.S.

“Further undercutting a fragile recovery by swamping markets with foreign products and attempting to manipulate prices threatens to wipe out any progress that has been made,” he said. “We appreciate the president’s goal of reducing grocery costs, but short-term measures could have long-term negative effects for consumers and for ranchers who are making decisions on whether to retain or expand their herd.”

Will Trump’s imported beef lower consumer prices?

Sunghun Lim, an Iowa State University economics associate professor, said consumers shouldn’t expect to see a 25% drop at the grocery store. “The more cautious interpretation is that the measure should put downward pressure on ground-beef prices relative to where they otherwise would have been,” said Lim in an email Friday.

Beef prices have skyrocketed as the U.S. herd has shrunk with drought forcing ranchers to cull herds. The average U.S. price for a pound of ground beef hit a record $6.89 in July, according to St. Louis Federal Reserve data. Over the past five years, the price has climbed 57%.

Rollins said consumer ground beef prices have dropped close to 2% over the past two weeks. “We’re already making progress,” she said, adding that the nation will get more information about imports in the weeks ahead with Trump’s executive order.

She said the Trump administration is committed to rebuilding the U.S. beef herd. “Unless we rebuild our beef herd, we will become more and more reliant on foreign countries to feed and fuel ourselves,” Rollins said.

Lim said imported beef could help slow rising beef prices. “With U.S. cattle supplies still tight, retail prices could remain elevated or even continue rising, while still being somewhat lower than they otherwise would have been,” he said.

In Februrary, Trump allowed to the 80,000 metric tons to be imported from Argentina. Rollins said the ban on Mexican cattle into the U.S. also has cut the country’s supplies. The U.S. banned cattle from Mexico in an effort to prevent the spread of New World screwworm in America, which now has a couple of active cases.

Rob Larew, the National Farmers Union president, said in a statement Trump’s decision is “a handout for monopoly meatpackers, who can mix cheap imported beef with American beef and pocket the difference, with no guarantee consumers ever see lower prices or ranchers see fair ones.”

Trump said the ground beef would be imported over the next 90 days “out of tariff,” meaning the meat can enter the country without being penalized for exceeding the nation’s quota.

Hinson, the American Farm Bureau and others said they plan to talk with the Trump administration about the decision. 

“We grow the highest quality beef here in Iowa, and so, absolutely, I’ll be advocating to the administration, because I think we need to be focusing on growing the herd the right way and protecting our cattlemen,” said the former TV journalist, who is in a tight race against Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative. 

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com.