Jesus Fucking Christ

The "soybean farmer" is high again.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a bizarre claim on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo that proved to be a head-scratcher for some on social media.

Bartiromo asked Bessent about a comment made by the CEO of Omaha Steaks who claimed Americans are heading for $10-a-pound ground beef.

“Well, Maria, the beef market is a very specialized market,” Bessent began. “It goes in long cycles. And this is the perfect storm, again, something we inherited.”

Bessent went on to make the strange claim that migrants have been bringing diseased cattle with them across the border.

And there’s also, because of the mass immigration, a disease that had been — we’ve been rid of in North America made its way up through South America, you know, as these migrants brought some of their cattle with them. So part of the problem is we’ve had to shut the border to Mexican beef because of this disease called the screw worm. So we’re not going to let that get into our supply chain. And, again, I don’t want to focus on one product. It’s a very important product. And if we are laser-focused on this product —

[...]

Although Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did suspend Mexican cattle imports to the United States due to screwworm concerns, there’s no information to suggest that South American immigrants have been bringing cattle across the U.S. border.

  Mediaite

Really? JFC.

And, speaking of Soybean Scott..

I didn't bother posting about the claim that everybody was going to get $2,000 from the government because I figured it was more bullshit.  And, guess what?

Nobody takes care of the farmers like Trump*

The Meat Import Council of America announced a few days ago that the first shipment of 25 tons of boneless beef from Namibia, Africa, arrived in the United States.

Namibia is in southern Africa, on the west coast, and has a large portion that is free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination, and a smaller portion that is not free of FMD.

  Beef Magazine

Gee, I wonder which they're sending us.

The Namibian imports have been noticed and called out by beef producers upset with the current state of slaughter plant closings and live-cattle to retail price spreads in the United States.

[...]

Meatco is the first company from Africa eligible to export meat to the US. The product is grass-fed with no added hormones or antibiotics.

Well, that's good.

Meatco is a Namibian beef processor which has been audited by USDA and recognised as “equivalent to US establishments.” The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in the US reinspects consignments.

*

Fortunately for farmers, that's probably true.  Just not the way he's telling it.