The rising cost of living is impacting nearly every good, including beef. From December 2020 to December 2025, the average price of steak rose by over $3 per pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (This is about a $2-per-pound increase after adjusting for inflation.) Thanks to these higher prices, Americans are reportedly eating less beef.
These cost hikes have not gone unnoticed by President Donald Trump, who, in November, blamed meat-packers for "driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation." The president then directed the Justice Department to investigate the "Big Four" meat-packers—JBS, National Beef, Cargill, and Tyson Foods, which together control 85 percent of the meatpacking market—for violating federal antitrust law. The status of the investigation is unclear, but on Monday, Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, celebrated the president "taking on the Big Beef cartel." While it might be politically popular to blame big meat-packers for high prices, data published by Trump's own Agriculture Department undermine this narrative.
