Recent beef price increases in the U.S. are a good example of how interconnected economic systems are and how policy decisions can create unintended consequences. Trump’s new tariffs on major beef suppliers such as like Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and Uruguay cut down imports and raised costs, reducing supply the at the exact moment the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it has been in about 75 years. Ranchers can’t just increase production quickly because drought, high feed costs (made worse by the tariffs on fertilizers), and expensive equipment have already made it difficult to rebuild herds. Since cattle production takes years, the supply chain is slow to adjust. The tariffs didn’t just hit beef imports, they also increased the costs of farming machinery, repairs, and feed which all pushed domestic prices even higher. Meanwhile, global suppliers sent their beef to other countries, tightening the world supply available to the U.S. Even policy attempts to bring in more Argentine beef created uncertainty and caused cattle futures to fluctuate. All of these factors, from climate stress to tariffs to global trade diversion, on top of each other, showing how a single policy choice can ripple through an entire system and ultimately raise prices for consumers while still leaving ranchers struggling.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/13/trump-tariffs-high-beef-prices.html
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