Business
US beef prices are soaring. Will Trump’s plans lower them?
Danielle KayeBusiness reporter
Mike CallicrateBeef prices have gotten so high in the US that it has become a political problem.
Even US President Donald Trump, who long ago declared inflation “dead”, is talking about it, as the issue threatens to undercut his promises to bring down grocery prices for Americans.
This week, he took to social media, urging ranchers to lower prices for their cattle.
But his demand – and other proposals his administration has floated to address the issue – has sparked a backlash among ranchers, who worry some of his solutions will make it harder for them to make a living, while making little dent at the grocery store.
The number of beef cattle farmers and ranchers in the US has dwindled steadily since 1980, reducing domestic supplies and driving up prices, as demand remains high.
The country’s cattle inventory has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 75 years, while the US has lost more than 150,000 cattle ranches since 2017 – a 17% drop, according to the Agriculture Department.
Ranchers say they are under pressure from four decades of consolidation among the meat processors that buy their livestock, while high costs for key inputs like fertiliser and equipment have intensified the strain.
The contraction in the industry has worsened as several years of drought have forced ranchers to slash their herd sizes.
Christian Lovell, a cattle rancher in Illinois, says parts of his farm that were lush and grassy when he was a child have now dried up, limiting where his cows can graze.
“You put all these together and you have a recipe for a really broken market,” says Mr Lovell, who works with advocacy group Farm Action.
Beef inflation
Retail prices for beef mince rose 12.9% in the 12 months to September, and beef steaks were up 16.6%, according to US inflation data published on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A pound of ground chuck – richer mince from the neck and shoulder of cows – now costs an average of $6.33 (£4.75), compared to $5.58 a year ago.
The increases have significantly outpaced general food inflation, which stood at 3.1%.
“The cattle herd has been getting smaller for the last several years, yet people are still wanting that American beef – hence the high prices,” says Brenda Boetel, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls.
Derrell Peel, a professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, says he expected prices to remain elevated until at least the end of the decade, noting that it takes years to replenish herds.
The Trump administration’s “hands are tied” when it comes to interventions that will help lower prices, he adds.
Reuters‘Chaos’ for US producers
The Agriculture Department unveiled what it called a “big package” this week aimed at ramping up domestic beef production by opening more land for cattle grazing and supporting small meat processors.
That proposal came after Trump drew the ire of ranchers when he proposed importing more beef from Argentina, potentially quadrupling US purchases.
Eight House Republicans responded with a letter expressing concerns about the plans.
Even the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which has voiced support for Trump’s policies in the past, said the import plan “only creates chaos at a critical time of the year for American cattle producers, while doing nothing to lower grocery store prices”.
Trump responded by assuring farmers that he was helping them in other ways, noting that tariffs that were limiting imports from Brazil.
“It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also,” Trump wrote.
But that has failed to quell the furore.
Justin Tupper, president of the US Cattlemen’s Association, says only the big four meat packers would benefit from Trump’s import plan in his view.
“I don’t see that lowering prices here at all,” he says.
‘These are consolidated markets’
Some say the US government could make an impact if it focused on the way a handful of companies dominate the market for meat processing.
Today, just four firms control more than 80% of the beef slaughtering and packing market.
“These are consolidated markets gouging ranchers and gouging consumers at the store,” said Austin Frerick, an agricultural and antitrust policy expert and a fellow at Yale University.
The meat processing firms – Tyson, JBS, Cargill and National Beef – have faced several lawsuits, including one filed by McDonald’s alleging that they colluded to inflate the price of beef.
Though Trump revoked a Biden-era order earlier this year directing agencies to tackle corporate consolidation across the food supply chain, his administration has taken other steps to investigate competition issues in the agricultural industry.
‘We’re not going to rebuild this cow herd’
Mike Callicrate runs a cattle ranch in St Francis, Kansas. He says the only way he has managed to stay in the industry was by cutting out the middleman and setting up his own stores to reach consumers directly.
But he acknowledged that most ranchers do not have the money to make that shift. Many have left the industry – and see no incentive to jump back in.
“We’re not going to rebuild this cow herd – not until we address market concentration,” Mr Callicrate says.
He adds that he supported the Agriculture Department’s plans to open up more cattle grazing land.
“But unless we have a market”, anyone would be a “fool to get into the cattle business”, he says.
Bill BullardBill Bullard found himself in the first wave of ranchers pushed out as the meat processing industry started to consolidate in the early 1980s.
He closed down his 300-cow operation in South Dakota in 1985.
Now the chief executive of R-CALF USA, a cattle producer trade association, he says it was only in the last year or so that ranchers had received good prices for their livestock, as supply dropped to such a low level that the prices paid by meat processors “simply had to increase”.
Still, reliance on imports and meat packers’ buying power persists, Mr Bullard says, meaning ranchers “lack confidence in the integrity of the marketplace” and remain reluctant to grow their herds.
He says he does not have confidence that the president’s ideas would fix the issues.
“He’s focused on the symptoms and not the problems.”
When you think of an investor, what kind of person comes to mind? What are their interests, their job? Are they an older man wearing a pin-striped suit and a bowler hat?
It might surprise you that the average investor age in the UK is 49 years old – down from 55 years old over the last five years.
And with more than 13 million DIY investor accounts in the UK, it’s likely that the average investor looks more like one of your mates than someone out of The Wolf of Wall Street.
The UK is historically quite wary of investing, and it’s been something that the financial industry and governments have been trying to tackle for years.
We’re starting to see the fruits of these efforts trickle through; latest Boring Money data reveals that DIY investing accounts grew over 19 per cent in the last year. Roughly one-third of the population now invests, up from about a quarter in 2020, and it’s becoming more mainstream by the day.
Start small, stay consistent – let the market do the work
It’s a common misconception that you need to have a lot of money to be an investor. The median amount invested by DIY investors is around £15,000, but you can start with as little as £1.
Neither does it have to be done in one big hit. Lots of providers allow you to set up regular investing – often £25 a month minimum, but a few let you regularly invest less.
Setting up these direct debits can also be a good idea – you drip feed into markets and average out the price which you buy at, so smoothing out any ups and downs along the way.
And you don’t have to be a maths genius or obsessively checking the markets – there are plenty of tools and account types that can do this for you.
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Robo-advisors are automated, algorithm-driven financial planning and investment services requiring little to no human supervision. A typical robo-advisor asks questions about your financial situation and future goals when you set up the account, then will match you to one of their ready-made portfolios and automatically invest for you.
Find your investment “playlist”
If you don’t want to go down the robo-route, but aren’t sure which to pick, you can take a look at some of last year’s best-selling funds for inspiration. These four funds below appeared on multiple investment platforms’ best-selling lists every month in 2025.
They are all low-cost global collections of shares which are well diversified. Think of them like an investment playlist curated for you to serve up a bundle of shares in one easy-to-buy package.
The idea is that you can buy one product which is very broadly spread around lots of different companies which minimises the risk of any one thing going horribly wrong.
Fidelity Index World: a very cheap way to buy about 1,300 of the world’s largest companies in one go, pre-wrapped into one single investment product which costs about £1.20 a year for every £1,000 invested here.
HSBC FTSE All-World Index: a similar global option with over 3,000 companies and emerging markets too, so you get exposure to India, China and Brazil too, for example. Good if you don’t want too much exposure to the US.
Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index: a very diversified option. It has shares in about 7,000–8,000 companies with a small proportion in smaller companies, about 10 per cent in emerging markets, and slightly less in the US than some peers – a bit pricier than some trackers but still really good value – about £2.30 a year for every £1,000 invested here.
Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity: one with a heavier British weighting – about 20 to 25 per cent invested in the UK.
Starting from scratch
If you’re a total beginner and want one of these global options to get started, you could compare platforms which will let you buy funds and won’t cost a lot for a small amount. Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell are good options if you have small balances and want to buy a fund like the above. Or you can open an ISA with Vanguard and pop one of their ready-made ‘LifeStrategy’ funds into it.
If you prefer to buy and sell shares or exchange traded funds then Trading 212 and Freetrade are good low-cost ISA providers for smaller balances.
Investing has never been easier.
The average investor age is dropping, the amount you need to invest is low, and people are investing less, but more regularly. There are plenty of different platforms, things to invest in and ways to invest.
People talk about “time in the market, not timing the market” – that means if you’re in it for the long-haul, and can afford to invest small amounts regularly, you’ll be in a great place further down the line. The most important thing is to just get started and build up over time.
When investing, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than invested. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
Britain’s competition watchdog has vowed to tackle fake and misleading online reviews “head on” as it launched investigations into firms including Just Eat and Autotrader.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said reviews are used by 90% of consumers when they buy over the internet and play a large part in the UK’s over £200 billion online retail sector.
But up to 50% of online reviews are fake, according to recent research by tech firm Truth Engine.
The CMA said its latest action against firms comes as part of a clampdown on fake and misleading reviews as shoppers increasingly rely on customer feedback when shopping online.
Emma Cochrane, executive director for consumer protection at the CMA, told the Press Association: “It’s so important that consumers can have trust in those reviews because we know that nine in 10 of us rely on them when we’re shopping, and that retail shopping in the UK is billions of pounds worth a year.
“It’s so important that consumers can have trust and confidence when they’re shopping online.”
Here are the CMA’s tips for spotting and avoiding fake reviews:
– Read the reviews
Shoppers often get taken in by five-star ratings without actually reading what people have to say about a product or service.
“You’ll be surprised at how many reviews sound dubious, overly vague or even totally unrelated to the item they’re supposedly endorsing,” the CMA said.
– Be alert to AI-generated reviews
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to make fake reviews sound fluent, polished and highly convincing.
“If a review feels a bit too slick, reads like it’s been perfectly crafted, or uses very similar wording to others, it may not reflect a real customer’s experience,” the CMA warned.
– Take a look at the other ratings
Look beyond the five-star ratings.
Three or four-star reviews are less likely to be fake, and they can be more useful to give a genuine, overall assessment.
– Check out multiple sites
Looking across several sites can help shoppers see patterns and provide a more consistent picture.
“Check a few different review sites. If you’re seeing the same kind of reviews coming up again and again, it’s more likely to be fake,” said Ms Cochrane.
The UK’s competition watchdog says it is looking at five firms in its investigation into misleading online reviews.
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