First, O'Keefe went to CattleCon and has some interesting insight;
He has more at his YouTube channel, fwiw.
But how did those 4 lock in this market status and why is the cattle herd so low today? The Biden administration, despite public proclamations to the contrary, made this situation happen quite deliberately.
More at the link. While Democrats at the state of the union and amid mid-terms want to blame Republicans for 'affordability' and prices this election cycle, this is just one example of how they studiously worked when in office to use the machinery of government, even without legislation, to spike prices for Americans as much as possible, under the guise of 'climate' protection, consolidating market power into a handful of organizations/lobbyist interests along the way. Of course the story goes back further, to Obama and beyond.
Reversing these policies/rules has necessarily taken time (heaven forbid BLM reverse a rule quickly or a Biden-Obama judge would step in and say no, the earth will overheat/illegal etc), and hopefully the investigation finally leads to real anti-trust action as well.
Undercover at CattleCon: Ranchers & Insiders Expose How Tyson, JBS, Cargill, & National Beef Secretly Control America's Beef Market.
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 24, 2026
The OMG team did a deep dive, going undercover at CattleCon 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee. We spoke with beef industry insiders and ranchers about… pic.twitter.com/heN6hmpJNc
Quote:
The O'Keefe Media Group went undercover at CattleCon and ranchers spilled the beans on how the "Big Four" control the beef industry.
"Our team spoke directly with ranchers and industry partners, documenting firsthand how the "Big Four" dominate the market and impact pricing," James O'Keefe said.
"Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef control most of the U.S. beef industry, raising serious questions about who really sets the price. So when you see higher prices at the grocery store, it's worth asking why," O'Keefe said.
"This may explain why your steak keeps costing more," he said.
"They [Big Four] are buying like all the companies in the United States… so they don't have competition," one insider said.
"They [Big Four] can knock you out of this industry in two seconds," another said.
"They [Big Four] closed all the markets all the markets are theirs in Brazil and now in the U.S."
He has more at his YouTube channel, fwiw.
But how did those 4 lock in this market status and why is the cattle herd so low today? The Biden administration, despite public proclamations to the contrary, made this situation happen quite deliberately.
Quote:
Between 2021 and 2025, the Biden administration implemented a suite of interlocking environmental-economic policies that resulted in cattle herd contractionsmost notably the "America the Beautiful" (3030) initiative, the Federal Plan for Equitable Long-Term Recovery and Resilience (ELTRR), the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Public Lands Rule, and nascent efforts to monetize natural capital through Natural Asset Companies (NACs) and voluntary carbon markets (VCMs).
By January 2025, the national herd had fallen to its lowest level since 1951, with beef prices at the retail counter exceeding $8.50/lb for choice cuts. Yet the lands sustaining cattle became more profitable as an asset on the federal balance sheet.
While framed as voluntary and incentive-based, between 2021 through 2025 these initiatives collectively reduced the productive land base available to U.S. cattle producers by an estimated 3.74.2 million acres, contributed to an 8.5% contraction in national cattle inventory (down to 87.2 million head), and played a measurable role in the 2025 protein supply shortages now evident in retail and food-service channels.
Three major policy vectors resulted in the reallocation of agricultural land use:
[ol]Land retirement via 3030 and CRP expansion Grazing permit attrition under the BLM Public Lands Rule Economic displacement through carbon markets and natural capital valuation [/ol]
Quote:
The net effect has resulted in about ~5% of Western rangelands being shifted to low-intensity or idled status for credit generation, while the cumulative impact on cattle inventory has resulted in skyrocketing beef prices.
Given that the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals call for a 50% reduction in red meat consumption, it's likely that the Biden administration's environmental-economic agenda was intended to shrink the U.S. cattle herd. Regardless,its incentive structures, regulatory levers, and valuation frameworks created a powerful gravitational pull away from productive grazing.
When layered atop drought and inflation, these policies converted marginal lands into financialized conservation assetsa shift that removed ~4 million acres from the beef supply chain and contributed to ~30% of the inventory decline observed between 2021 and 2025.
More at the link. While Democrats at the state of the union and amid mid-terms want to blame Republicans for 'affordability' and prices this election cycle, this is just one example of how they studiously worked when in office to use the machinery of government, even without legislation, to spike prices for Americans as much as possible, under the guise of 'climate' protection, consolidating market power into a handful of organizations/lobbyist interests along the way. Of course the story goes back further, to Obama and beyond.
Reversing these policies/rules has necessarily taken time (heaven forbid BLM reverse a rule quickly or a Biden-Obama judge would step in and say no, the earth will overheat/illegal etc), and hopefully the investigation finally leads to real anti-trust action as well.
