Donald Trump plans to import 300,000 metric tons of cheap ground beef, we can’t get our congressman, Ben Cline, to comment on how this will kill the local beef industry, but the governor, Abigail Spanberger, is going to bat for people who wouldn’t vote for a Democrat in a million years.
“This policy will directly harm Virginia’s cattle producers by flooding the market with government-subsidized, imported beef to the detriment of our farmers. This handout to foreign competitors has already caused a negative reaction in cattle markets while providing no guarantee of retail price relief for consumers,” Spanberger wrote in a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins that was made public by the governor’s office on Monday.
Trump wants to sell this cheap beef “at 25 percent below current market prices,” he announced last week – with no pushback from Cline, whose congressional district includes the two biggest beef-production counties in the state.
“I have and will continue to stand with our farmers and cattlemen in Virginia and firmly believe that the success of Virginia agriculture depends on sound and durable trade policies that give producers the confidence to invest in the long-term health of the industry,” Spanberger noted in her letter.
Cline is ignoring the issue, even as he posted to his socials on Sunday about a listening session with the Virginia Farm Bureau that gave him the opportunity to “hear directly from the farmers who feed and fuel our Commonwealth.”
ICYMI
- Ben Cline pretends to listen to farmers, as Valley beef industry struggles to keep up
- Trump wants to flood the market with cheap foreign beef: Why is Ben Cline silent on this?
Funny thing, then, that the Farm Bureau president, Scott Sink, provided a quote to the governor’s office for their press release.
Maybe the Farm Bureau folks aren’t happy with the guy their members keep sending back to Congress every two years not looking out for their best interests.
“Virginia’s cattle producers understand the desire to provide relief to consumers facing higher grocery prices. However, increasing beef imports without addressing the underlying challenges facing the U.S. cattle industry is not a long-term solution. We look forward to working with state and federal leaders to address such challenges,” Sink said, in a statement provided to us by the governor’s office.
The Virginia Cattlemen’s Association, which is headquartered 10 minutes from Cline’s house in Botetourt County, also provided a statement to the governor’s office to disseminate to the media.
“Beef imports of that magnitude have serious short-term and long-term implications for cattle producers,” VCA Executive Director Brandon Reeves said in the statement. “The immediate impact will be lower cattle prices. The bigger concern is that it takes away the incentive to rebuild our nation’s cowherd.”
The frustrating thing here: these folks are still going to vote 70-30 for Cline in November, despite him doing literally nothing for them here.
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Chris Graham
