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Four companies control about 85% of U.S. meat processing; Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins promised "big announcements" starting Monday
President Donald Trump vowed on Friday to issue a legal order allowing farmers and ranchers to process their own meat, calling the nation's dominant processors "a nasty monopoly."
Trump posted on Truth Social that he was "authorizing legal documents to be drawn" to give farmers and ranchers the right to process their own food, without naming a specific product or sector. Four companies — Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS USA, and National Beef Packing Co — control about 85% of U.S. meat processing.
Under current federal law, ranchers are permitted to slaughter and process their own animals but are barred from selling that meat unless they meet strict safety and sanitation requirements and undergo regular inspections. The details of how Trump plans to alter those rules remain unclear.
