What federal actions on beef mean for local producers

The federal government is trying to lower the price tag on beef at the grocery store. How those decisions could affect beef producers in Tennessee may vary. Farm trade groups have expressed concerns about how federal efforts meant to cut down prices for consumers could affect some American beef producers. But some local beef producers said they haven't felt a direct impact from the Trump administration's decisions. Some economists say it could affect beef producers regardless. "We're such a global market now in most everything that we do, any type of impact in any location is going to influence our market," said Andrew Griffith, University of Tennessee agriculture and resource economics professor. "Whether it be local, state, regional or national market. It's being influenced in some form or fashion. We may not see how it directly influences us, but it's impacting our markets." President Donald Trump signed a proclamation to import more beef from Argentina in August, on top of the beef the U.S. already imports from other countries. Last year, it said it would import more meat from Argentina for the same reason. Owner of Genesis Farms Joe Reid raises his cattle and produces his beef locally. Reid explained that the specificity of his customer base — local residents who are interested in buying the beef he raises — means increased imports or fluctuating beef prices at the store hasn't affected his business. His product prices are already higher than what's sold at a chain grocery store. "My prices are going to be a little bit higher than even at the store," Reid said, adding this is largely because it takes more time and work for smaller producers to feed and take care of cattle. Mike Southerland, a Washington County farmer who raises livestock for about 70 customers, said the people he services are willing to pay higher prices. "They don't mind paying the higher price because they know where it came from," said Southerland. "They know it's locally grown. They know it's packaged the way they want it to be." Southerland is also the president and general manager at the Appalachian Producer Cooperative, a farmer-owned meat processing facility in Telford that opened in 2025. APC staff said they similarly haven't felt a direct, immediate impact from federal beef import decisions. Southerland said beef prices have been increasing for years, and the decreasing amount of cattle in the United States hasn't helped. Griffith said the COVID-19 pandemic spiked beef prices temporarily due to a decrease in processing. More significantly, Griffith said, consumers began to buy more beef from the grocery store than from restaurants, driving demand to record high levels. "We're in our fourth or fifth year of higher and higher beef demand," Griffith said, adding the increased demand from consumers and a drop in cattle herds across the nation is driving higher beef prices. The U.S. cattle herd has been decreasing for years largely due to drought conditions and other issues. When cattle prices are high, it's hard to convince farmers to produce beef from start to finish, instead of selling their cattle once it's raised. Farmers can make more of a profit by selling calves, according to APC Administrative Manager Lexy Close. "There's no kind of financial incentive when cattle prices are so high to go through the hassle of processing and marketing and finding customers and delivering products and all that," Close said. The administration's August proclamation exempted 300,000 metric tons of imported Argentinian ground beef from certain tariffs over a three-month period. U.S. beef production in the 2025 marketing year totaled 11.84 million metric tons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with a little over 2.4 million metric tons of beef and veal imported. Faith Parnum, a deputy chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a press release that in the month following the deal's announcement, some store prices dropped 2%, while other store prices didn't change. "Policies like suspending the tariff rate quota actually incentivize farmers and ranchers to sell part of their herd because they are seeing that market volatility, and they're not getting those signals to rebuild that herd," Parnum said in the AFBF release. Griffith said Trump's proclamation has little to no impact on the market when considering the amount of beef the country imports annually. He said only about 15% of the beef that could have been imported in September as part of the deal was actually brought in under the reduced tariff rate. The American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvell urged the administration to "reverse the decision to increase imports before cattle prices fall further," saying the plan is "hurting farm families." Reid said while his prices may be higher than the already high grocery store prices, consumers are paying for the extra labor that goes into a local farmer producing beef from start to finish. "[Farms] are going away because of the price of land and development," Reid said. "We all complain about that, but we live in a subdivision complaining about the farms going away. Well, guess what? Your subdivision used to be a farm… and if you don't start supporting your local farmers, it'll be a subdivision." Jorgelina Manna-Rea is a Report for America corps member reporting on issues relating to the environment for Six Rivers Media.