Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller Talks Beef Industry

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller discusses President Trump's push to bring in more foreign beef, and says it is hurting US ranchers and could cost Republicans support in the midterm elections. Miller, also said he had a "heated discussion" with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins over the policy and calls for mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef. Miller spoke with Bloomberg's Joe Mathieu and Tyler Kendall.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Speaker 2: Commissioner Sid Miller. Commissioner, it's great to see you, sir.

Speaker 2: Welcome to Bloomberg TV and radio. We've got a lot

Speaker 2: of questions for you. And I just want to start

Speaker 2: with the basic premise here. Will this move the president

Speaker 2: is making depress prices and take money out of the

Speaker 2: pockets of Texas cattle ranchers?

Speaker 3: Well, it's a bad move for a couple of reasons, Joe.

Speaker 3: Number one, it doesn't do anything to build a cattle herd.

Speaker 3: It absolutely does not. And second, even more important, it

Speaker 3: adds to our agriculture trade deficit. The previous administration left

Speaker 3: us a $ 50 billion ag trade deficit. First time in

Speaker 3: my lifetime that's ever happened. We sell, you know, export

Speaker 3: a lot of agriculture products, but we're buying more food

Speaker 3: from foreign nations than we're selling. So that's a dangerous

Speaker 3: position to be in when you have foreign countries depending on,

Speaker 3: you know, them to feed you. So we've got to

Speaker 3: do something to build the herd. So I suggest two things.

Speaker 3: One is a retention tax credit. When you your child,

Speaker 3: if you have one 17 or younger, you get a

Speaker 3: thousand dollars off your income taxes.

Speaker 1: Well, let's do something like that for the cattle.

Speaker 3: Let's give them five hundred dollars to keep a heifer

Speaker 3: and turn it into a mom account. The other thing

Speaker 3: that actually compounded the problem when we closed the border

Speaker 3: to Mexican cattle, it's much better if we walk cattle

Speaker 3: across on the hoof than buying beef in the box.

Speaker 3: Because when you walk cattle in, they graze our winter pasture,

Speaker 3: our ranches, eat our grain, our corn, ride in our

Speaker 3: trucks and go through our processing plants. There's two million

Speaker 3: head in Mexico waiting to come in.

Speaker 1: That would rebuild the herd.

Speaker 3: By two million. Hey, Tyson last week closed three packing plants.

Speaker 3: Two million head would have kept them open.

Speaker 1: That's right.

Speaker 4: Yeah. So based off of what you're outlining, are you

Speaker 4: saying that this is more a federal issue, a way

Speaker 4: that the federal government could put forward solutions? Or are

Speaker 4: there other things that the state should be taking into

Speaker 4: consideration when it comes to supporting America's cattle ranchers?

Speaker 3: Well, the beef industry is scattered over the whole nation,

Speaker 3: so we need a nation solution. So that's why I

Speaker 3: suggested the half-retention tax credits opening the border to Mexico. Now,

Speaker 3: they've opened it, but we've only got in 750 head.

Speaker 3: At this rate, we might get 100,000 head by the

Speaker 3: end of the year. That's not going to do it.

Speaker 3: And really, I don't think beef is all that high

Speaker 3: compared to everything else. I just went to the grocery store.

Speaker 3: I don't know if you can see this or not,

Speaker 3: but there's ground beef, 80-20, $ 4.

Speaker 1: 99 a pound. Chuck roast, $ 7. 99 a pound.

Speaker 3: That seems fairly reasonable, especially when I am paying as

Speaker 3: a cattleman the highest prices for my three top inputs.

Speaker 3: High feed because of the drought, high diesel prices because

Speaker 3: of the Strait of Hormuz, and the highest fertilizer prices

Speaker 3: I've ever paid, also because of the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaker 3: So we're not on easy times, and bringing in foreign

Speaker 3: beef is complicating the problem.

Speaker 2: Well, we know that they're really tough times and that

Speaker 2: we know that farmers want to work. They want to

Speaker 2: produce and they want to feed Americans. Commissioner Miller, there's

Speaker 2: also reality. Is there going to have to be another

Speaker 2: farmer bailout next year?

Speaker 1: Well, possibly.

Speaker 3: But, you know, this is this is not helping because

Speaker 3: it's taking profits right out of the rancher's pocket. And,

Speaker 3: you know, the Trump administration has advisers. That's why he

Speaker 3: has a cabinet. A lot of ranchers are really disappointed

Speaker 3: in Secretary Rawlins for not weighing in on this.

Speaker 1: She fully supports this.

Speaker 2: She won't say where the beef is coming from. Should

Speaker 2: we know what country the beef is coming from?

Speaker 3: Well, let me tell you, I'm glad you brought that up.

Speaker 3: It's coming from any one of 20 countries. They won't

Speaker 3: tell us which one. But here's the problem, Joe. When

Speaker 3: it gets here, if you want to go to the

Speaker 3: grocery store and make sure you're buying U.S. beef and

Speaker 3: not beef from Brazil, you can't tell because once it

Speaker 3: gets here, it can all be labeled product of USA.

Speaker 3: You can't tell the Australian beef from the Brazilian beef

Speaker 3: from the Argentine beef.

Speaker 1: It's all packaged.

Speaker 3: Now, USDA has a voluntary program, but we need a

Speaker 3: mandatory country origin label.

Speaker 1: That's lying to the American consumer. That's deceptive advertising.

Speaker 3: That just really, you know, chaps me off that we

Speaker 3: would do that to the American consumer, just flat out

Speaker 3: lie to them.

Speaker 4: Have you spoken to Secretary Rollins directly? Have you asked

Speaker 4: for any answers on these questions that you have?

Speaker 1: I have as recently as yesterday.

Speaker 3: We had a rather heated discussion, as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1: And she's going to stand behind the president's decision.

Speaker 3: But we would really like for her to stand up

Speaker 3: for the ranchers and farmers and, you know, at least,

Speaker 3: you know, push our side of it so the president knows,

Speaker 3: you know, where we stand.

Speaker 1: You know, I'm the strongest reporter and supporter in Texas.

Speaker 1: Trump has.

Speaker 3: He calls me Trump's man in Texas. I very rarely

Speaker 3: disagree with him. Matter of fact, only two times have

Speaker 3: I disagreed with him. And it was over Argentine beef

Speaker 3: and all these 300,000 metric tons of beef coming in

Speaker 3: from 20 different countries.

Speaker 5: Only two times. I'm glad that you mentioned that.

Speaker 2: Commissioner, because we should tell our viewers and listeners that.

Speaker 5: You're a MAGA supporter. You're a Trump guy.

Speaker 2: And you've tried to work with the administration all the way.

Speaker 5: Is the president risking losing the American farmer?

Speaker 3: Well, I think he's, you know, I'm real close to him.

Speaker 3: I'm right in the heartbeat of a ranching country.

Speaker 1: You know, Texas, we have more.

Speaker 3: Cattle than any other state. And they're really upset about this.

Speaker 3: We may lose some midterm elections over this. You can

Speaker 3: throw in data centers and solar farms and school choice

Speaker 3: and high property taxes. And we outlawed THC in Texas.

Speaker 3: There's a number of issues. We're having supporters drop off

Speaker 3: from this administration, unfortunately.

Speaker 2: Are you worried that farmers are going to start selling

Speaker 2: their land for data centers to move in?

Speaker 1: Well, they're already doing that. We've got 500 data centers.

Speaker 3: We have more data centers in Texas than China does.

Speaker 3: China stopped at 453. They said it was too big

Speaker 3: a strain on their infrastructure. We've got over 500 in

Speaker 3: just Texas. So the AI race is over. We've won it.

Speaker 3: We're going to have 5,000 in the United States. No

Speaker 3: one else even comes close. So the AI race is over.

Speaker 3: We need to get some parameters around this industry and

Speaker 3: try to get it, you know, some guardrails around it

Speaker 3: because it's just a wild, wild west, especially in Texas.

Speaker 4: Are those conversations about potential guardrails happening? Are you talking

Speaker 4: to the governor or other officials at the state level

Speaker 4: about what that would actually look like and what's feasible

Speaker 4: to get through?

Speaker 3: Well, you know, I've been talking about this for a year,

Speaker 3: but I'm the only statewide Republican that's doing so. Democrats

Speaker 3: are right on the issue. They're hammering it. The governor's

Speaker 3: starting to come around. He's the one that recruited them

Speaker 3: here and bragged on, we're going to have more AI

Speaker 3: data centers than any state.

Speaker 1: Well, he accomplished that.

Speaker 3: But we don't have any regulation in Texas, and our

Speaker 3: counties can't regulate it. They don't have any authority to

Speaker 3: do so. So they just come in here, use our water,

Speaker 3: our electricity, take up our most valuable farmland. They like

Speaker 3: it better than anything else.

Speaker 1: It's flat.

Speaker 3: It's ready to go. It's got water and electricity on it.

Speaker 3: They can just start building and they don't need any

Speaker 3: building codes or anything.

Speaker 2: I just want our listeners on the radio to know

Speaker 2: the commissioner is sitting in his vehicle wearing a white

Speaker 2: cowboy hat and he held up the flyer from the

Speaker 2: grocery store to talk about prices. And before you leave us, Commissioner,

Speaker 2: because this is an awfully authentic conversation, you a ribeye

Speaker 2: man or a strip guy?

Speaker 3: You know, here's, ribeye is probably right in the middle,

Speaker 3: most flavorful. Tenderloin is the most tender. And the strip

Speaker 3: is the most flavorful. But it's not the tender. So

Speaker 3: I'm kind of a ribeye man. I like all three

Speaker 3: of the combinations.

Speaker 5: I had a feeling he was going to say that, Tyler.

Speaker 1: All right.

Speaker 4: Well, Texas Commissioner of Agriculture, Sid Miller. Mr. Commissioner, thank

Speaker 4: you so much for joining us here on Bloomberg. We

Speaker 4: hope you'll come back soon.