Is This the End of Good Beef Products?

Via Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • More than 85% of the grass fed beef sold in the U.S. is not raised in the U.S., yet it’s labeled “Product of the USA.” As a result of a loophole in the labeling law, American farmers who produce grass fed beef are forced to compete against far less expensive imported grass fed beef
  • In 2017, raising grass fed beef in Australia cost 59 cents per pound, whereas the cost per pound in the U.S. was $1.55 for large producers and as much as $4.26 per pound for a small farm
  • One of the reasons for this price discrepancy is the fact that countries like Australia and New Zealand have relatively temperate weather year-round. As a result, their cows can graze on pasture throughout the year, whereas American farmers must purchase feed during the winter
  • There’s a globally coordinated assault on agriculture. The G20, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) and the World Economic Forum are all pushing for radical reductions in farming to reach “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions
  • The “sustainability” that globalists are calling for is not the sustainability of the human population. What they’re referring to is the sustainable growth of a new global economic system based on the allocation of finite resources to the technocratic “rulers.” The rest of us will “own nothing,” because they intend to strip us of our ownership rights. It’s crucial that people understand that the “sustainability” solutions currently offered will result in the eradication of a large portion of humanity

The video above is a short excerpt from a Joe Rogan interview (episode 2062) with Will Harris, the owner of a regenerative farm called White Oak Pastures, and his daughter Jenni Harris. In it, they discuss the ramifications of not having country of origin labeling on beef.

Twenty-five years ago, White Oak Pastures was the first “American made” grass fed beef brand on the market. Today, more than 85% of the grass fed beef sold in the U.S. is not raised in the U.S. Most of it comes from Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay. However, all that imported beef is legally labeled “Product of the USA.”

How is that possible? As explained by Will, “If value is added in this country, it’s a product of the USA.” “Added value” includes grinding, slicing, labeling, packaging, reboxing and transporting the meat. In other words, any kind of domestically performed processing and transport.

“But make no mistake, the animal was born, raised and slaughtered in Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand or 20 other countries,” Will says. As a result of this loophole in the labeling law, American farmers like the Harris family are forced to compete against far less expensive imported beef, which obviously has a negative impact on their profit margin.

In 2017, raising grass fed beef in Australia cost 59 cents per pound, whereas the cost per pound in the U.S. was $1.55 for large producers and as much as $4.26 per pound for a small farm.1 Naturally, if an American farmer wants to compete with Australian beef, they have to either find a way to slash costs, or produce at little to no profit.

One of the reasons for this price discrepancy is the fact that countries like Australia and New Zealand have relatively temperate weather year-round. As a result, their cows can graze on pasture throughout the year, whereas American farmers must purchase feed during the winter. The temperate climate also allows them to maintain much larger herd sizes, and scale cuts down the cost as well.

Country of Origin Labeling Excludes Beef and Pork

The U.S. does have a law in place that requires retailers to notify customers about the country of origin of certain foods. The Country of Origin labeling (COOL) law has been in effect since 2002. When first passed (under Title X of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002), it applied only to fresh beef, pork and lamb.

In 2008, the COOL requirements were expanded to include fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables. Congress repealed the COOL requirement for beef and pork in 2015 because the World Trade Organization (WTO) had issued a series of rulings prohibiting country of origin labels on these two commodities. The final rule removing mandatory COOL requirements for beef and pork in the U.S. was issued in February 2016.2

Is Your Beef Truly Grass Fed?

American grass fed beef producers also face another unfair hurdle, as the USDA doesn’t have an official definition for “grass fed.” As reported by The Gazette:3

“Unlike anything with an organic seal, which requires adherence to more definitive USDA rules, calling beef ‘grass fed’ doesn’t require an on-farm inspection or even mandate that animals live freely on a pasture.

Some ‘grass fed’ beef comes from cattle raised in grass feedlots, where they are confined in pens and fed grass pellets … Other beef products are labeled ‘grass fed, grain-finished,’ a shorthand for the standard cattle practice of raising cows on grass for most of their lives and then fattening them up quickly at the end.”

Under the USDA, terms like “grass fed” and “free-range” are voluntary marketing claims4 that aren’t backed up by stringent certification requirements or inspections. To address this shortcoming, organizations such as the American Grassfed Association (AGA) have stepped in to create their own national standards.

At present, the best and most rigorous grass fed certification in the U.S. is that of the AGA.5 AGA certified grass fed beef is raised on a 100% grass diet from weaning until slaughter. They’re also raised on pasture, without confinement throughout their life cycle, and are never treated with antibiotics or added growth hormones.

Importantly, all AGA certified animals are also born and raised on American family farms that employ a regenerative approach to farm management. The take-home here is that if you want to support American beef producers, make sure the beef you buy is AGA certified. The “Product of the USA” label is meaningless.

USDA to Revise Labeling Guidelines for Grass Fed Beef

In June 2023, the USDA announced it intends to revise meat labeling guidelines for claims like “grass fed” and “free-range” to require verification of how the animals were actually raised.6 The agency also plans to “strongly encourage” third-party certification to verify grass fed claims.

Time will tell whether the USDA’s revisions will have the intended effect. Time and again, sneaky loopholes have allowed even the largest producers to compete by making claims they don’t live up to.

For example, many large-scale egg producers claim their hens are raised on free-range pasture, when in fact the only “pasture” the chickens have access to is a concrete slab that most can’t get to anyway due to the sheer number of chickens in the flock.

Agriculture Is Under Coordinated Assault

While the USDA may appear to care about food quality and giving consumers accurate and truthful information about the food we buy, the larger agenda is pushing in a different direction entirely. As reported by Global Research,7 there’s a globally coordinated “all-out assault” on agriculture.

“The recent G20 governmental meeting in Bali, the UN Agenda 2030 COP27 meeting in Egypt, the Davos World Economic Forum [WEF] and Bill Gates are all complicit,” Global Research reporter William Engdahl writes.

“Typically, they are using dystopian linguistic framing to give the illusion they are up to good when they are actually advancing an agenda that will lead to famine and death for hundreds of millions not billions if allowed to proceed.”

Engdahl goes on to review the agendas of the G20, Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP278) and the WEF as they pertain to our continued ability to produce food.

G20 Plan — Change Food System to Combat Climate Change

November 13, 2022, the G20 agreed on a final declaration in which they call for “an accelerated transformation” toward “sustainable and resilient” agriculture, food systems and supply chains to “ensure that food systems better contribute to adaptation and mitigation to climate change …”

Importantly, the G20 is committed to achieving “global net zero greenhouse gas emissions/carbon neutrality by or around mid-century.” As noted by Engdahl:9

“’Sustainable agriculture’ with ‘net zero greenhouse gas emissions’ is Orwellian doublespeak … What in fact is being promoted is the most radical destruction of farming and agriculture globally under the name ‘sustainable agriculture.’”

COP27 Plan — Kill Farming to ‘Save the Planet’

Days after the G20 meeting, the UN’s COP27’s annual Green Agenda Climate Summit meeting took place. There, participants (which included UN member states and hundreds of “green” NGOs) launched an initiative called FAST, which stands for Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation.

Just like the G20 declaration, the FAST initiative calls for a rapid shift toward “sustainable, climate-resilient, healthy diets” to address climate change. But what does that entail, exactly? As noted by Engdahl, the acronym reveals quite a bit, seeing how “fast” means “to abstain from eating food.” Reading between and behind the lines, it’s quite clear that the globalist plan is to severely restrict traditional food production and consumption. Engdahl writes:10

“According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization … within a year the FAO will launch a ‘gold standard’ blueprint for reduction of so-called Greenhouse gases from agriculture.

The impulse for this war on agriculture comes not surprisingly from big money, [the] FAIRR Initiative, a UK-based coalition of international investment managers which focuses on ‘material ESG risks and opportunities caused by intensive livestock production.’

Their members include the most influential players in global finance including BlackRock, JP Morgan Asset Management, Allianz AG of Germany, Swiss Re, HSBC Bank, Fidelity Investments, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, Credit Suisse, Rockefeller Asset Management, UBS Bank and numerous other banks and pension funds with total assets under management of $25 trillion.

They are now opening the war on agriculture much as they have on energy … The FAIRR claims, without proof, that ‘food production accounts for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and is the main threat to 86% of the world’s species at risk of extinction, while cattle ranching is responsible for three quarters of Amazon rainforest loss.’

The FAO plans to propose drastic reduction in global livestock production, especially cattle, which FAIRR claims is responsible for ‘nearly a third of the global methane emissions linked to human activity, released in the form of cattle burps, manure and the cultivation of feed crops.’ For them, the best way to stop cow burps and cow manure is to eliminate cattle.

The fact that the UN FAO is about to release a roadmap to drastically reduce so-called greenhouse gases from global agriculture, under the false claim of ‘sustainable agriculture’ that is being driven by the world’s largest wealth managers … tells volumes about the true agenda.

These are some of the most corrupt financial institutions on the planet. They never put a penny where they are not guaranteed huge profits. The war on farming is their next target.”

‘Sustainable’ for Whom?

Engdahl points out that the term “sustainable” was created by David Rockefeller’s Malthusian Club of Rome. In its 1974 report, “Mankind at the Turning Point,” The Club of Rome argued that nations cannot become interdependent lest they give up some of their independence.

To encourage this giving up of independence, the Club drew up a master plan for “sustainable growth and world development based on global allocation of all finite resources and a new global economic system.” This master plan formed the foundation of what eventually became UN Agenda 21, Agenda 2030, and The Great Reset. Continuing to quote Engdahl:11

“The UN and Davos WEF teamed up in 2019 to jointly advance the SDG [sustainable development goals] UN Agenda 2030. On the WEF website this is openly admitted to mean getting rid of meat protein sources, introducing promoting unproven fake meat, advocating alternative protein such as salted ants or ground crickets or worms to replace chicken or beef or lamb.

At COP27, discussion was about ‘diets that can remain within planetary boundaries, including lowering meat consumption, developing alternatives, and spurring the shift towards more native plants, crops and grains (thus reducing the current reliance on wheat, maize, rice, potatoes).’

The WEF is promoting a shift from meat protein diets to vegan arguing it would be more ‘sustainable.’ They also promote lab-grown or plant-based lab meat alternatives such as the Bill Gates-funded Impossible Burgers, whose own FDA tests indicate it is a likely carcinogen as it is produced with GMO soy and other products saturated with glyphosate.

The CEO of Air Protein, another fake meat company, Lisa Lyons, is a special WEF adviser. WEF also promotes insect protein alternatives to meat … The war on animal raising for meat is just getting deadly serious.

The government of the Netherlands whose Prime Minister Mark Rutte … is a WEF Agenda Contributor … announced it will forcibly close 2,500 cattle farms across Holland. Their goal is to force fully 30% of cattle farms to close or face expropriation.

In Germany the German Meat Industry Association (VDF), says that within the next four to six months Germany will face a meat shortage, and prices will skyrocket … The issues in meat supply are due to Berlin insisting on reducing the numbers of livestock by 50% to reduce global warming emissions.

In Canada, the Trudeau government, another Davos WEF product … plans to cut emissions from fertilizer 30% by 2030 as part of a plan to get to net zero in the next three decades. But growers are saying that to achieve that, they may have to shrink grain output significantly.

When the autocratic President of Sri Lanka banned all import of nitrogen fertilizers in April 2021 in a brutal effort to return to a past of ‘sustainable’ agriculture, harvests collapsed in seven months and famine and farmer ruin and mass protests forced him to flee the country. He ordered that the entire country would immediately switch to organic farming but provided farmers with no such training.

Combine all this with the catastrophic EU political decision to ban Russian natural gas used to make nitrogen-based fertilizers, forcing shutdowns of fertilizer plants across the EU, that will cause a global reduction in crop yields, and as well the fake Bird Flu wave that is falsely ordering farmers across North America and the EU to kill off tens of millions of chickens and turkeys … and it becomes clear that our world faces a food crisis that is unprecedented. All for climate change?”

Understand What’s at Stake

Indeed, the forces at play on the global scene are marching us straight toward worldwide famine under the banner of saving the planet. Mass starvation will be the end result if they get their way, and there’s every reason to suspect they know this.

You’d have to be an idiot to not understand that if you drastically cut production of key food staples there will be food shortages, and if people don’t have enough to eat, eventually they die. You also have to be way behind the eight-ball not to realize that lab-grown meat alternatives and insects will not provide the same nutrition as real meat, and malnutrition is almost as bad as no nutrition. The end result is much the same.

So, the “sustainability” these globalists are calling for is NOT the sustainability of the human population. The sustainability they’re referring to is the sustainable growth of their new global economic system, which is based on the allocation of all finite resources. And to whom will all these world’s resources be allocated? It will go to themselves — the technocratic echelon, which includes the richest of the rich — of course.

The rest of us will “own nothing,” because they intend to strip us of our ownership rights and seize our assets. That’s what programmable central bank digital currencies and a central ledger is all about. Somehow, the promise that we’ll “be happy,” has also been thrown in there, but that’s pure fantasy.

It’s universally understood that private ownership is key to freedom and prosperity, which in turn tends to foster contentment and some measure of happiness. So, at this point, it’s really crucial that people understand the context within which the word “sustainability” is being used, and that it implies the eradication of a large portion of humanity.

Call on Legislators to Support the PRIME Act

If we want to avoid worldwide famine, we must stand together against those who seek to prohibit food production under false pretenses. We also need to encourage, support and push for MORE local food production.

To that end, tell your representatives and senators to cosponsor the PRIME Act — House Resolution 281412 (H.R. 2814) and Senate Bill 90713 (S.907) — which would allow states to pass laws to legalize the sale of custom slaughtered and processed meat in intrastate commerce. As explained by The Weston A. Price Foundation:14

“Passage of the PRIME Act would better enable farmers to meet booming demand for locally produced meat. Right now in parts of the country, farmers have to book a slaughterhouse slot as much as 1-1/2 to 2 years out.

Moreover, farmers often have to transport their animals several hours to a slaughterhouse, increasing their expenses and stressing out the animals which could affect the quality of the meat. Passage of the PRIME Act would significantly increase access to local slaughterhouses.

Passage of the PRIME Act would improve food safety. Anywhere from 95% to 99% of the meat produced in the U.S. is slaughtered in huge facilities that process 300–400 cattle an hour. It is difficult to have quality control in the plant under those conditions no matter how many inspectors are present …

The big plants process more animals in a day than a custom house would in a year. There is better quality control in a custom slaughterhouse, inspector or no inspector … Custom operators have every incentive to process clean meat. Where a lawsuit against a big plant is just a cost of doing business, one lawsuit can easily shut down a custom house.

Passage of the PRIME Act would improve food security. Supply chain breakdowns and labor shortages have made the food supply more vulnerable. Passage of the PRIME Act would improve food security by increasing the local supply of quality meat, food that for most of us is critical for a healthy diet …

Passage of the PRIME Act would keep more of the food dollar in the state and community. The big food corporations send much of the money they earn out of the state; more of the money that local farmers, ranchers and custom house operators earn would circulate within the state and community, strengthening the local economy.”

This bill has been before Congress for eight years already. It’s time to get it passed, and the best way to do that is to get it into the 2023 Farm Bill. You can look up your representatives at www.congress.gov, or call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

If you cannot meet with your legislators face-to-face, call and/or email your U.S. representative and both of your U.S. senators and ask them to cosponsor HR 2814 / S907. Talking points and other tips on how to contact and interact with your legislators can be found here.

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42 Comments
Old Red
Old Red
December 1, 2023 6:40 am

46 Anyone that wants good beef buys it from a known local farmer. You will pay more, probably $6 a lb instead of $4.50. You will never get good beef from the grocery store. I have been buying from local farmers for 20 years.

Richard Cranium
Richard Cranium
  Old Red
December 1, 2023 7:10 am

And you can ask about the types of vaccinations, steroids, and antibiotics are being given to the cattle. mRNA for example.

The Central Scrutinizer
The Central Scrutinizer
  Richard Cranium
December 1, 2023 7:27 am

You can also be lied to to your face and you’d never know it…so there’s that.

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer
  The Central Scrutinizer
December 1, 2023 8:50 am

Then you don’t know the farmer.

I would suggest that the single greatest skillset a human being could ever develop is the ability to recognize when someone is lying to them. As with everything there is no foolproof, 100% perfect system, but you can easily hone that skill to the 90% or better level if you try.

If you visit a farm, ask to loo around. If the farmer isn’t open to it, he’s probably hiding something. Most of them would be thrilled to have someone ask about their farm and how they operate if they are doing it right and show them whatever they want to see.

10ffgrid
10ffgrid
  hardscrabble farmer
December 1, 2023 2:56 pm

Simply put – they’re usually proud of what they have accomplished, all of which require extremely hard work and a connection with nature.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  hardscrabble farmer
December 5, 2023 1:41 am

By the time you know enough to ask the right questions, or know the nuance of what they are talking about, you are probably raising your own food anyways. For everyone else, just try to find someone who actually cares about their animals.

Most farmers are proud to tell you what they do, especially if it sounds like work or money are involved. But if you sound critical, they will either lie to your face or throw a tantrum. Probably all the chemicals they spray turning them into women.

The best you will probably find are the ones who wish things were different, but don’t think they have a choice.

10ffgrid
10ffgrid
  The Central Scrutinizer
December 1, 2023 2:48 pm

My experience with farmers/ranchers is one of hard work, trust, honesty, and good calibre.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  10ffgrid
December 1, 2023 6:09 pm
Erik
Erik
December 1, 2023 6:55 am

Remember “THE ENDLESS STREAM OF MIGRANTS????” So THEY are adapting OUR world to THEIR migrants.. These migrants eat different things, do different jobs, go to different schools, have a different religion-fear system and also the money system will be adapted to their behaviour..

The Central Scrutinizer
The Central Scrutinizer
  Erik
December 1, 2023 7:28 am

THAT’S HOW ISLAM WORKS!!!

overthecliff
overthecliff
  The Central Scrutinizer
December 1, 2023 2:55 pm

Islam is fighting to bring peace and tolerance to the world by killing the Jews . Muslims are our friends .

Anthony Aaron
Anthony Aaron
  Erik
December 1, 2023 8:06 pm

What you say applies equally to mexicans and salvadorans and chinese and filipinos and hmong and ethiopians and …

RoCar
RoCar
December 1, 2023 7:21 am

Psssst… they wanna offer you crappy meat for one reason only, So you’ll stop eating it altogether.
comment image

The Central Scrutinizer
The Central Scrutinizer
  RoCar
December 1, 2023 7:29 am

There’s always venison.

Gryffy
Gryffy
  The Central Scrutinizer
December 1, 2023 12:54 pm

Not always. Fifty years ago there were very few deer in my area. Seeing one was a rare treat. Then there were a lot, too many. An insect carried virus thinned the herd a few years ago. There are lots of hunters and they could disappear again.

Bluesky
Bluesky
  Gryffy
December 1, 2023 2:40 pm

There was no virus they were starving to death in the winter

Gryffy
Gryffy
  Bluesky
December 1, 2023 3:02 pm

No, they were were dying in late summer. A tiny endemic midge carried the disease and conditions were right for decimation.

Gryffy
Gryffy
  Gryffy
December 1, 2023 3:17 pm

We had dry, hot spell which created perfect conditions for the disease carrying insects.
It is a nasty disease, which makes the deer thirsty as their guts are destroyed. Many died next to streams. Again, nothing new. Too many deer and nature took its course. Some survived and life goes on.

Bluesky
Bluesky
  Gryffy
December 1, 2023 3:30 pm

Whatever it was it wasn’t a virus because viruses are a hoax

Gryffy
Gryffy
  Bluesky
December 1, 2023 4:40 pm

You were wrong about it occurring in winter. I won’t argue with you about the reality of viruses. Let us agree that it was a “disease”, cause possibly questionable. They died in summer. A person I know had 30 deer in the fields on her farm. Most of them died and the carcasses were there. I found several on my farm. It was real, whatever the cause.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Gryffy
December 2, 2023 12:20 am

Out here deer and mountain lions ride a teeter-totter; when the numbers of one are up the numbers of the other are down. Same thing with foxes and coyotes. Funny how nature works, isn’t it?

BL
BL
December 1, 2023 7:29 am

How long will the tens of thousands of chain restaurants last if there is no real beef, chicken or pork products on the menu? Americans can eat slop at home, why would you pay restaurant prices for slop?

Fake meat is like Communism, it sounds like it might work, but it just never does. What a bunch of crap.

anon a moos
anon a moos
  BL
December 1, 2023 9:01 am

Don’t underestimate the level of indifference people have towards pretty much anything today. If they can go to a restaurant and order what looks like beef/pork/chicken and tastes like it, they’ll keep going and buying it. They don’t care and won’t ask if what they are eating is safe or produced locally.

And labels… mean nothing. If only we had an app that’d tell us whether the product is safe or not…

Anonymous
Anonymous
  anon a moos
December 1, 2023 11:24 am

“If only someone would do all the research so I didn’t have to..”
Is how we got to here.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anonymous
December 1, 2023 11:44 am

“People accept the facts which come to them through existing channels. They like to hear new things in accustomed ways. They have neither the time nor the inclination to search for facts that are not readily available to them.”
― Edward L. Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion

Trust the political science:

Anthony Aaron
Anthony Aaron
  Anonymous
December 1, 2023 1:12 pm

God … what a nasty bitch … and, somehow, Harvard couldn’t find any US Citizen/Taxpayer to teach censorship at their prestigious university … they actually had to hire this skank …

Someone call ICE on Harvard … have her fired and deported immediately …

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anonymous
December 2, 2023 1:40 am

Effing Bitch is hated

BL
BL
  anon a moos
December 1, 2023 12:34 pm

moos- A non-stop diet of soy fake chicken and fake beef will kill them off early. There is no such thing as a steak made in a lab that will taste like a real beef steak. Poor people eat substandard food because they have to, but if you have been out for dinner in AVERAGE restaurants lately you’ll need $100 for dinner for two.

I’m not paying $100-$150 for soy slop, so it better be f’n cheap as dirt and I better be REALLY desperate for something to fill my stomach. Might I point out that the joos in Israel own the lab grown meat industry, does that resonate with ya’ll?

Here’s a clue, I’ll put livestock in the basement under my house in Podunk if I have to which was a common practice in Europe up until about a hundred years ago. You want a revolution, take my filet mignon…..but prepare to die.

Goat!
Goat!
  BL
December 1, 2023 1:24 pm

It is funny, because I actually have had livestock in my basement. Both goats and chickens.

BL
BL
  Goat!
December 1, 2023 1:37 pm

Goat- Better start clearing the basement out for another go at raising food in the basement. The globalist want to starve us out, city folk be helpless due to ordinances. Country folk can raise animals without some Karen calling the authorities.

GNL
GNL
December 1, 2023 8:12 am

How much would beef cost per lb if it wasn’t for Australia and Uruguay?

hardscrabble farmer
hardscrabble farmer
December 1, 2023 8:37 am

In 2017, raising grass fed beef in Australia cost 59 cents per pound, whereas the cost per pound in the U.S. was $1.55 for large producers and as much as $4.26 per pound for a small farm

This is something I never would have understood had we not become farmers. Most people will read this passage and assume it is the truth without giving it any thought at at all, but is such a clear fiction it is almost impossible to believe anyone with an IQ above 80 could fall for it.

The cost to raise “grass fed beef” is zero because no one raises beef, they raise cattle. Beef is a by-product of farming/ranching, like manure, it is not a commodity or industrial widget produced in a factory.

The cost to raise a single head of grass fed beef cattle is as fixed in Australia as it is in the US. They eat the same amount, drink the same amount and live the same amount of time before they are ready for slaughter. The variables have to do with tax rates on the land and seasonality- a steer raised in New England where it feeds on harvested hay made during the Summer months as opposed to a steer who grazes in a climate where grass grows year round for example will differ due to the inputs of fuel, machinery to harvest hay, plastic wrap to preserve it, etc.

The biggest part of those differences in a similar environment- say a large ranch in Montana and small farm in new York State- has very little to do with forage or payroll and everything to do with tax subsidies. The USDA cuts checks to offset costs for large operations and offers nothing to smaller ones.

If you’d like to know what a pound of grass fed beef is worth- very different from what it costs- try and raise one on your own and tally up your hours, cost for fencing, enclosures, slaughter, butchery and packaging and see what you come up with.

A finished steer under at three years of age, raised on grass, slaughtered and packaged for sale, excluding labor costs for the farmer’s time, is approximately 5-6 dollars per pound, averaged out. Bones do not bring much if anything, and there are only two beef tenderloins weighing approximately 10 pounds total that bring the highest price, currently around $25 per pound. The total harvested edible parts including bones, tallow, and offal is roughly 500 pounds from a one ton animal. A live full grown bull sells for about $2,000 currently and processed-based on the numbers above- maybe another $500- not enough to cover the cost of slaughter, never mind packaging.

Once you start to understand that very little if anything we are told is true, it is up to the individual to discover the true value (as opposed to price) of everything by personal experience.

BL
BL
  hardscrabble farmer
December 1, 2023 9:01 am

The Amish around here raise and process beef at reasonable prices. Very reasonable prices.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  BL
December 1, 2023 9:38 am

What are they?

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Anonymous
December 1, 2023 11:47 am

A religious sect.

};^D

Dangerous Variant
Dangerous Variant
  hardscrabble farmer
December 1, 2023 9:55 am

The USDA cuts checks to offset costs for large operations and offers nothing to smaller ones.

Indeed. They do, however, offer a variety of financial and market access incentives that are ALL trojan horses deigned to incorporate the smaller farms into the same industrial model that is broken, resulting in the small or start-up farms becoming trapped in the aggregation pipeline of the globofarms and subject to access and regulatory whims of the corprofascist industry..

It is only a matter of time before the unnatural economics and/or regulatory-driven inputs required by the corpro-state bodies force those smaller farms to become effectively indentured sharecroppers on their own land at best or land FF&E acquisition targets for the big boys.

Take the ring to survive the input volatility and headwind only to give it all back and more.

Then there are the grower’s responses to the top-down industrial model which are almost always done to solve for the dwindling profitability and access issues with the de facto monopoly.

A program some years ago in our states industry association has effectively done the work for the big boys by solving for the kind of monocropping and market concentration that the big boys want.

What has helped small farmers squeeze a little more breathing room out of their herds has given more power to the corporate feedlot and processing buyers and driven up price and terms for new breeders – all while created massive downward price mechanism on any breed/characteristic that falls outside of the narrow market that has been created.

These are what “solutions” look like to the problems that are downstream of the broken model.

This kills innovation, breed selection and cultivation based on ones local environment and capabilities aka “regenerative” and other cool names for what our ancestors called common sense, genetic diversity to protect against black swans (and mandated culls for disease “outbreaks”), etc. all of which adds up to further bifurcating the market between extreme boutique and commodity industrial.

Most beef operations round here are small family operations. It is almost entirely a cow-calf state so beef producers retain breeding herds of heifers and sell once or twice a year at the auction barn where price sensitivity under hoof is such that first-to-scale in the AM vs later in the day is meaningful.

Almost all have other “day” jobs and/or a spouse/children who work outside the farm to provide income, health benefits, etc. Most in my local association run their economics through their household cash-n-carry mentality. Meaning they might characterize it as follows: we spend a little bit of money every week all year and then hope to get a lot of money back at the end of the year so that we can have enough to spend that money a little bit at a time over the next year. Profit? hard to say. That doesn’t even get into the stack of debt. How long can you run that old dodge when a new one is $80k?

Last year when beef prices fell it was largely due to one of the largest sell-offs (liquidating the grower seedstock and leaving the business) ever. So indeed there is a lot more to the “price” of beef.

Like most things in the sunset of clownworld the solutions include a number of difficult and costly changes like disaggregation, decentralization, hyper-localization, and restoring environmental congruence in an overarching economic picture that is full of asset inflation, scarcity and supply chain issues, capital cost inflation, labor problems, etc.

As an individual grower and individual consumer these are daily problems to define and solve but the aggregate remains institutional and industrial and most people will simply not move out of that paradigm any more than they will leave the city income, homeschool their kids, cook meals at home, grow a garden, and so on.

Get local. Know yourself. Know your neighbor. Build community. Its all going binary. Be a “one”.

Lawfish
Lawfish
  Dangerous Variant
December 1, 2023 3:22 pm

I know my cattle farmer. I meet her in the parking lot of the local Bass Pro Shops on the third Tuesday of every month to get my beef. It’s true grass-fed. They hold farm tours every October so you can see exactly how they raise their cattle. It’s $9.50 a lb., but it’s well worth it. There are literally hundreds of thousands of acres of beef pasture within 100 miles of my home.

PA Patriot
PA Patriot
  hardscrabble farmer
December 1, 2023 2:16 pm

And then there are predators that state law prohibits the dispatching of-no matter the circumstance. Our long time source for both beef and chicken has been ground and spit out, no longer in business. A farmer and very good friend for over 30 years. Still a dear friend, but no longer a source of food supply.

Bluesky
Bluesky
December 1, 2023 2:38 pm

BAR attorneys create these legal word games like product of the USA rather than raised in the USA. Just like they changed the term property into real estate since hardly anyone buys property anymore. Driving is another legal term instead of traveling

Bluesky
Bluesky
December 1, 2023 3:29 pm

Not just beef all good foods

morongobill
morongobill
December 1, 2023 11:05 pm
Anonymous
Anonymous
December 2, 2023 12:26 am

Do bugs fart?