Trump Issues Beef Industry Executive Orders Amid Trade and Conservation Controversy

On September 4, 2026, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders in the Oval Office aimed at the U.S. cattle sector. The orders direct the Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, in consultation with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, to review statutory and regulatory authority for reinstating mandatory country-of-origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef and to develop related legislative recommendations. A separate directive instructs Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to assess whether gray and Mexican wolves meet recovery criteria for delisting under the Endangered Species Act and to encourage states to relax protections.

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Congress repealed MCOOL for beef and pork in 2015, a move that consumer-advocacy groups have long opposed. Earlier in the year, after meeting Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista—a key JBS shareholder—Trump paused tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of beef for 90 days, allowing discounted imports from Argentina, Brazil, and other nations. The administration framed the orders as a response to record-high beef prices—up roughly 23-25 % across cuts—and ranchers’ complaints about market concentration among meatpackers such as JBS (reported $131.7 billion revenue, $2.4 billion profit) and Tyson (reported $82.65 billion revenue, $681 million profit).

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Angela Huffman, president and CEO of Farm Action, welcomed the labeling language and the focus on the Packers and Stockyards Act, noting the steps “move in the right direction” but fall short of stronger producer protections. The wolf directive proposes delisting if recovery criteria are met, a move the White House presented as assistance to ranchers confronting predation.

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Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals, warned that rolling back federal wolf protections would jeopardize decades of recovery. Claire Musser, executive director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, highlighted the fragile status of the Mexican gray wolf population (317 individuals) and cautioned against weakening protections. Michael Robinson, senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, pledged legal action, stating that downlisting wolves would be “cruel, deeply unwise and illegal.”

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• “These actions show the administration is listening to problems farmers and ranchers have raised for years, and we appreciate that,” — Angela Huffman

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• “This is a huge distraction to placate a handful of ranchers and make them believe that wolves are a greater threat than President Trump's own policies,” — Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project

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