Daniel Wolfram
Trump finally revealed where some of his “mystery meat” is coming from. Now the new question revolves around how old the imported beef is.
The price of beef in America has risen to astronomical levels at the moment due to rising inflation.
The average price of ground beef is around $7 nationwide. That is up more than a dollar since Trump took office two years ago.
The president of the United States has pledged to lower the price by importing tons of foreign beef. The problem is that he is unwilling to disclose where it is coming from.
The beef is coming from Brazil and Argentina
Donald Trump has been peculiarly secretive about where his administration is importing the beef from. Last week, he finally revealed that the beef is going to come from Brazil, Argentina, and “a couple of other places.”
Trump also tried to reassure the public that the beef is of the highest quality.
“We have our inspectors down, it’s very clean, it’s very good. […] right now it’s primarily Argentina, Brazil, but there could be other countries. And we’re doing it in a very limited fashion because our ranchers can handle it. But our ranchers really needed a little bit of help, and our ranchers want the prices to be down, too,” Trump said during an executive order signing on livestock and market access.
New York Times columnist eviscerates Trump’s ‘mystery meat’ policy
A journalist and author is disputing Trump’s claims of the high quality of the beef that is coming in.
Eric Schlosser says that the meat is not sirloin, T-bone steaks or even regular processed meat. Instead, it is “lean trimmings” and no one knows how old it is since there are no regulations.
Schlosser writes in his op-ed: “They’re small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years. They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat, imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers.”
Both Democrats and Republicans are furious
This “mystery meat” policy has caused a revolt among both Democratic and Republican legislators. Republicans are arguing that this tariff-free import deal made by Trump is merely a “quick fix” and will not solve the soaring prices in the long run.
Both Democrats and Republicans argue that this deal undercuts American ranchers whose livelihoods depend on the steady income from selling beef to consumers.
“President Trump is right to make lowering grocery costs for American families a priority,” United States Representative Kat Cammack wrote on social media, according to Fox Business. “I share his commitment to bringing those costs down. At the same time, short-term relief can’t come at the expense of American ranchers, free markets and long-term solutions.”
According to Eric Schlosser, some of the Brazilian beef that is going to be imported has been blocked from being sold in the European Union due to antibiotic misuse.
