Droughts, complicated by climate change, result in US beef herd hitting historic low
In major cattle states, ranchers have been coping with intense precipitation events, followed by long stretches with no rain.
A lot of these high prices are coming from supply constraints as the real cost of producing a mutilated edible cow carcass rises in the face of shrinking pastures and depleted water reserves.
This is only profitable when the excess supply of cattle you’re paying to lose is outrun by the gross profit in sales. And higher prices deplete your customer base, which means you’re still losing sales even as your margins on the surviving slaughterable calfs rise.
This isn’t “good” for the industry as a whole, even if there are a few well-positioned winners.
Plus beef is a large emitter to climate change. They’ve spread tons of disinformation on this to keep its consumption and production up. The industry is reaping what they’ve sowed
The US beef industry is creating an army of influencers and citizen activists to help amplify a message that will be key to its future success: that you shouldn’t be too worried about the growing attention around the environmental impacts of its production.
In particular, it would like you not to be especially concerned about how meat consumption needs to be reduced if we are to avoid the most violently disruptive forms of planetary heating (even if all fossil fuel use ended tomorrow).
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/03/beef-industry-public-relations-messaging-machine
Buh, buh… my taste buds are more important than animal lives
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What an absurdly hostile thing to say to random people on the internet who have, at worst, annoyed you. like, they have not materially impacted your life in any significant way.
Like, I’m not a vegetarian, and the preachiness of some can be annoying, but like, you could just… not engage? Like, there are so many groups that are actually having a negative material impact on your life, and you’re out here fuming with rage at this?
