Rollins Keeps Heat on Brazilian Packers: ‘We’ve Gotta Reshore Processing’
May 27, 2026
By Frank Fuhrig
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a television interview last week compared foreign ownership of U.S. meat packing facilities with reliance on fertilizer imports.
In an appearance on Fox Business, she discussed imports of fertilizer, which have become scarce on global markets due to the halt in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Rollins was also asked about consumer beef prices and the Trump administration’s attempts to encourage rebuilding of the beef herd.
“The Department of Justice now looking into our four processors, two of which are owned in Brazil … talk about reshoring fertilizer — we’ve gotta reshore processing, too,” she said. “All of this will allow us to build out an even bigger beef herd. But that’s really important as we continue our national security quest to ensure we’re able to feed ourselves and not rely on other countries.”
Both JBS, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year, and National Beef, owned by Brazil-based MBRF, run major U.S. beefpacking facilities.
Rollins described a “perfect storm” for beef prices “after years of war on our cattle ranchers.” She accused “the last administration” of taking away grazing allotments as well as causing the halt in Mexican cattle imports through an “immigration disaster, which brought up the screwworm from South America.”
“There is no doubt that we are facing very high beef prices, specifically in ground beef,” Rollins said.
She said that consumer prices for ground beef were “about a dollar above where it has historically been, and we don’t take that for granted — a dollar is too much.”
“People are eating more beef than ever before,” Rollins said. “This is an amazing testament to our incredible ranchers who produce the best beef in America.”
