A state-inspected meat plant in most of the country cannot legally ship a single package across a state line. An executive order signed September 4, 2026 directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to widen the narrow federal programs that make an exception, so small, state-inspected processors can sell their beef, pork and poultry beyond their…

President Trump signed an executive order on September 4, 2026, giving the U.S. Department of Agriculture three months to figure out whether it can legally force grocery stores to disclose where beef comes from. The instruction sits inside a broader ranchers’ order that also touches grazing land and predator control, but for household grocery budgets,…

American shoppers reaching for ground beef, steak or a roast this year are absorbing one of the steepest single-category price increases in the supermarket. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service now forecasts that beef and veal prices will climb 9.8 percent over the course of 2026, the fastest rise among the fifteen food-at-home…

The federal government’s newest price outlook shows the vegetable aisle climbing faster than the rest of the grocery cart this year, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasting a 5.9 percent increase in retail fresh vegetable prices for 2026. Tomatoes are driving much of that increase already: retail prices for fresh tomatoes in July 2026…

President Trump signed a proclamation in late August that temporarily lets more imported beef into the United States at a lower tariff rate, and the White House says the point is a 25 percent price cut on that beef. But read the actual text of the order, and there is no line that forces an…

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has widened its year-long look at beef prices beyond the meatpacking plants and onto the shelves where households actually shop. Four of the country’s biggest grocery sellers — Walmart, Costco, Amazon and Kroger — are now among eight retailers that received formal letters asking about recent increases in retail beef…

A new 30-day window for cheaper imported beef opened this week, timed to a cattle shortage that has pushed ground beef prices to some of the highest levels on record. Starting September 1, the first of three monthly allotments of duty-reduced lean beef trimmings became available to importers, and it closes again at the end…

Freight haulers paid $5.599 for a gallon of diesel last week, the fuel that moves nearly every trucked item on a grocery store shelf from the farm or port to the checkout line. That’s down slightly from the week before, but it’s nearly 50 percent above what the same tank cost a year ago —…

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline came in at $4.071 last week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Monday survey of retail stations across the country. That’s a few cents cheaper than the week before, but it sits 89 cents higher than drivers paid at the same point last year. For…

Beef gets the headlines, but it is not the only grocery category running hot in USDA’s own price data this year. The Economic Research Service now forecasts sugar and sweets prices, the category that covers candy and chocolate, rising 7.1 percent in 2026. That puts it among the fastest-growing sections of the grocery store, well…