TX Agriculture Commissioner: Argentina Beef Imports Won’t Lower Many Beef Prices

On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller (R) said that importing beef from Argentina will help with lowering the price of hamburger, but, due to the low quality of beef from Argentina, importing Argentinian beef won’t help the price of cuts of beef that are higher in quality and laid out his own suggestions for increasing production of beef in the United States.

Miller said, “Number one, importing beef from Argentina will definitely lower hamburger prices. Brooke Rollins said today we’re going to import up to five times as much as we’re normally importing. But it’s very low-quality beef. About the only thing we can do is grind it up into hamburger. I really don’t think it’s going to lower the price of ribeyes and strips and sirloins, those higher-quality cuts.”

He added that importing beef from Argentina will worsen the agricultural trade deficit. And suggested increasing the amount of land available for grazing by opening land that farmers have agreed not to farm under an agreement with the USDA for grazing for three years, giving tax credits for keeping heifers, and some re-opening of the importation of cattle from Mexico.

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