Brooke Rollins Predicts If Grocery Prices Will Drop Before Midterms

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told the Daily Signal that she predicts beef prices will decrease before the November midterm elections.

Beef prices fell 1.0% in August, after a 0.8% decline in July. But Rollins said the Trump administration is not done working toward lower prices.

“I think there’s a lot we’re going to be able to do in the short term and the long term,” she said in an exclusive interview.

President Donald Trump in August announced that the U.S. would import 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, angering the many American ranchers who helped elect the president. Trump also signed an executive order allowing ranchers to sell and process their own meat, a deregulatory action praised by farmers.

For the first time in 10 years, heifer retention numbers went up, which is good for the long-term viability of building the herd, Rollins said. In the short term, bigger numbers of cattle are going into the feedlots, and the Trump administration reopened the ports along the southern border, she said.

Rollins said American grocers are also working to make healthy food more affordable.

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“There’s a big margin for them in protein right now because so many people are buying it more than ever before,” she said. “The demand has never been higher, so so they’ve been a really great partner in this as well, so yes, I expect the numbers to keep declining.”

Rollins said the current price of ground beef is reasonable for American families, but she still wants to see it drop.

“I would argue that $6.50 for a pound of nutrient-dense ground beef, most of it from America, if not all, is absolutely worth it, and you can feed your family of four,” she said. “My drink from Dunkin’ Donuts this morning was more expensive than that. But at the same time, the president does recognize that for some families that might be out of reach, and we’ve got to work harder to bring those groceries down.”

The president is aware that farmers are also struggling with high diesel prices, according to the agriculture secretary. She said she is “looking at tools in the toolkit” to ease the pain.

“There is no doubt we are in a really tough time, especially in harvest,” she said. “I am hearing from hundreds of farmers that what used to be X amount to fill up their tractor is now significantly more, and while we brought other inputs down, labor is down about 40%. Fertilizer is actually down, other than sulfur, but urea, DAP, ammonium, ammonia phosphate, that’s all down 50 to 60% from the Biden highs, so we’re making a lot of progress on fertilizer and some other things.”

“But fuel, with what’s happening in Iran, is certainly hitting these farmers hard,” she continued.

Rollins said she believes in the president’s vision of “no nuclear weapons in Iran” and that the financial hardships caused by the conflict are temporary.

“This is short-term challenges that, for the long term, will secure peace and prosperity for my children and your children and future generations,” she said. “But the president is very aware that our farmers are hurting, and so we will likely have some announcements on that very, very soon on the cost of diesel.”

Despite the challenges currently facing ranchers, Rollins is confident they continue to be one of the most loyal constituencies in Trump’s base, and they will show up in November to vote for Republicans.

“The president has no greater support, and no group of Americans have stuck with him, have marched beside him, have supported him than rural America and farmers and ranchers,” she said.

“What we have done is put the farmer and rancher back in the middle of policymaking in Washington,” she added.

Rollins does not doubt that farmers are facing challenges and that ranchers are discouraged, but she will believes they will continue supporting the president.

“When I go out and talk to them, and I think I’m probably on the road, perhaps more than any other ag secretary has ever been, and my goal is not to talk to people in Washington, but to talk to real farmers,” she said. “What I am hearing is ‘We’re with you. Times are tough. We’d love for these input prices to come down, but we see the light.”

Ranchers understand that their struggles are temporary, so they are not abandoning the MAGA movement, she said.

“Once we’re out of this Iranian conflict, we’re going to see some unbelievable numbers on fuel and other things,” she said, “and I think that there’s no doubt that they will continue to be the most steadfast and passionate supporters of the America First agenda.”