U.S ranchers and GOP lawmakers in farming regions denounce Trump administration plans to import beef

Many American ranchers see Argentina beef as a major
competitor. (Carol Highsmith's America photo)

American cattle ranchers and GOP members from farming states have a beef with President Donald Trump's plan to import meat from Argentina to help decrease U.S. beef prices.

Several GOP senators were "completely blindsided by the president’s announcement that he was looking into a deal with one of American ranchers’ biggest competitors," report Meredith Lee Hill and Rachel Shin of Politico. "Those GOP lawmakers are now facing intense blowback from angry ranchers and beef trade groups."

In her social media post, Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer wrote, "The U.S. has safe, reliable beef, and it is the one bright spot in our struggling ag economy. Nebraska’s ranchers cannot afford to have the rug pulled out from under them when they’re just getting ahead or simply breaking even."

Other livid GOP members point out that the beef deal with Argentina wasn't a good way to solve grocery store beef prices and that Trump's plan did not "put America first."

While Trump touted Argentinian beef imports as an immediate way to lower beef costs for U.S. consumers, Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins unveiled "plans to open up new lands for cattle ranching and support new beef processing plants as part of a broader effort to lower beef prices for consumers," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. "The effort would also include incentives for production of new, smaller processing plants."