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Missouri Cattleman proposes $1 beef coupon program to boost U.S. beef sales

Jim Hertzog, a livestock auction owner and Missouri cattleman, says improving beef prices at the grocery store could be as simple as a beef coupon.

“It’s only good for beef that is labeled born and raised and a product of the USA.”

He has proposed a program that would provide a $1-per-pound coupon or digital rebate for consumers buying U.S.-raised beef, called the American Beef Coupon Program.

“For a retailer, they would want to label the product in order for the consumer to come in there and buy more beef,” he says. “If you’ve got one store that doesn’t use it and the other one that does, the store that’s using the beef bucks, more people are going to go there and buy their beef.”

He says it would help buyers at the grocery store, while cattle producers recover from the multi-year drought.

Hertzog suggests the program could be paid for by the U.S. government through existing agriculture and consumer relief efforts. It would be administered through the USDA, or in coordination with major retailers and processors.

Hertzog says Congress could also reinstate Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling in the United States, which would require a beef label to list where the animal was born, raised and harvested.

“Congress took it away. And they’ve got to be the ones to reinstate it.”

MCOOL was repealed in 2015 after the World Trade Organization said it violated trade rules.

Last week, the September Consumer Price Index showed a 15 percent increase in beef prices. President Trump also said he would like to import more beef from Argentina to lower consumer prices, but the move is getting push back from the U.S. beef industry.

Hear the interview with Hertzog.