Ensuring Affordable Beef for the American Consumer
Record date: 2026-02-13
Proclamation 11010 of February 6, 2026 Ensuring Affordable Beef for the American Consumer A Proclamation 1. Cattle ranchers have played an integral role in United States history, helping to forge an American identity and an American diet with beef as a key staple food. Today, beef remains vital in the American diet, evidenced by the fact that the United States is the largest consumer of beef by volume, followed closely by China and Brazil. And the United States ranks second in per capita beef consumption globally. 2. But in 2022,
What this record contains
- Federal Register document
- 2026-03050
- Publication date
- 2026-02-13
- Citation
- 91 FR 7107
- Issuing office
- Executive Office of the President
Official record excerpt
Proclamation 11010 of February 6, 2026 Ensuring Affordable Beef for the American Consumer A Proclamation 1. Cattle ranchers have played an integral role in United States history, helping to forge an American identity and an American diet with beef as a key staple food. Today, beef remains vital in the American diet, evidenced by the fact that the United States is the largest consumer of beef by volume, followed closely by China and Brazil. And the United States ranks second in per capita beef consumption globally. 2. But in 2022, the United States faced a widespread and severe drought, affecting beef-producing States, such as Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Kansas. Texas and Kansas, for example, continue to face persistent drought conditions. The effects of drought are particularly pronounced for livestock producers as many of their operations rely on precipitation to grow forage crops to feed their herds. 3. In addition to droughts, wildfires have affected the grasslands of the western United States, including America's cattle-producing States. Apart from the direct threat of burns and burn-associated deaths to cattle, cattle ranchers have had to adapt to indirect effects of wildfires, including changes in grazing patterns, loss of feed supplies, and suboptimal animal health for those cattle surviving the wildfires. 4. Given the demand for beef, certain United States cattle farmers and ranchers supplement their herds, specifically their feedlot stocks, with cattle (calves) imported from Mexican ranchers. But following new detections of the New World screwworm in Mexico in May 2025, the Department of Agriculture Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service, in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), restricted the importation of live animal commodities from or transiting through Mexico, further limiting domestic feedlot stock supplies. 5. These factors have combined to result in the United States cattle herd contracting to record lows. As of July 2025, the United States cattle inventory totaled 94.2 million head, including 28.7 million beef cows. This is one percent lower than the United States cattle inventory surveyed in July 2023, continuing the downward trend of cattle inventory in the United States. 6. The abovementioned factors have also cumulatively resulted in higher beef prices for United States consumers, including for ground beef. Since January 2021, ground beef prices have continued to rise, reaching an average of $6.69 per pound in December 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—the highest since the Department of Labor started tracking beef prices in the 1980s. 7. Despite the increased prices and the availability of more affordable protein alternatives, United States consumers' demand for beef remains strong. The United States imported a record high amount of beef in 2024, reaching 4.64 billion pounds, a more than 24 percent increase in beef imports since 2023. Among the beef products the United States imports are lean trimmings, which are blended with fattier domestic trimmings to produce ground beef products, such as hamburgers. ( printed page 7108) 8. The Secretary of Agriculture has monitored the domestic supply of beef products subject to a tariff-rate quota (TRQ), including lean beef trimmings falling under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) statistical reporting numbers 0201.30.5091, 0201.30.5097, 0202.30.5091 and 0202.30.5097, and noted the domestic supply of such products and substitutable products combined with the estimated imports of such products under the United States beef import TRQ. The Secretary of Agriculture also advised on related domestic demand and pricing. 9. As President of the United States, I have a responsibility to ensure that hard-working Americans can afford to feed themselves and their families. After considering the information provided to me by the Secretary of Agriculture, among other relevant information, I am taking action to temporarily increase the quantity of in-quota imports of lean beef trimmings under the United States beef TRQ to increase the supply of ground beef for United States consumers. 10. Section 404 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) (Public Law 103-465, 108 Stat. 4809, 4959-61 ( 19 U.S.C. 3601 )) authorizes the President, in certain circumstances, to modify TRQs on certain agricultural products. In particular, section 404(b) of the URAA ( 19 U.S.C. 3601(b) ) provides that where imports of an agricultural product are subject to a TRQ, and
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