Inflation didn’t eat your steak. A cartel did
By Peter Navarro | Washington Examiner | January 23, 2026
OPINION:
Once upon a time, you paid fifty bucks for a steak only if your waiter wore a tux. Now you pay it under fluorescent lights at the supermarket.
That’s not inflation. That’s a Brazilian beef cartel squeezing American families. Here’s the part no one ever explains:
Beef prices aren’t set on the ranch. They’re set in the slaughterhouse — the place where cattle are turned into the burgers and steaks you buy at the store. Control that step, and you control the price. Period.
And right now, America’s slaughterhouses are controlled by a foreign-dominated cartel tied to Brazil.
The United States has over half a million cattle ranches. But almost all of their cattle must pass through a tiny number of meatpacking plants before reaching your plate. Just four companies control about 85% of U.S. beef processing — and two of them, JBS and National Beef, are effectively controlled from Brazil.
That’s not competition. That’s a choke point.