Shrinking beef market may mean poorer meat at stores(Meatpacker monopoly collusion?)

[RamboLiberal]

AINSWORTH, Neb. — In this Great Plains ranching town, cowboys still lasso steers as part of their daily routine and cattle producers like Bob Sears take pride in the long tradition of raising American beef.

But Sears and many other ranchers say the market for domestic meat has withered to the point where they often receive only a single reasonable bid for their animals — a trend that could eventually mean lesser-quality meat on dinner tables across the United States.

The struggle to get a competitive price, they say, is helping to push thousands of producers out of business and might put pressure on others to sell sicker, weaker cows with less tender, less flavorful meat and smaller rib-eyes, for example.

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The complaints have also drawn the interest of federal regulators, who are investigating possible antitrust violations in the meatpacking industry.

Sears and other cattle producers suspect meatpackers are quietly cooperating to keep prices low in an area that stretches from Kansas to Nebraska and South Dakota, the region that dominates U.S. cattle production.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2010-10-23-beef-market_N.htm

[Donnachaidh]

1. beef prices in our area keep going up

But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the middlemen are bringing in beef from other countries. So now our cattlemen can thank Washington for NAFTA.

[aquart]

2. What? I eat beef.

Maybe if we allowed the mad cow testing originally requested, beef eating would go up again.

[tsuki]

3. And our exports are down. Europe, Japan and Korea are among

those countries no long importing American beef.

[matt819]

4. Buy local

Granted, it may cost more. But take the time, energy, and a few extra dollars and buy local, grass-fed beef. In many cases, not all, this is organic. And in many cases as well (though, again, not all), the slaughter and processing is humane. We have a local food coop that offers these options as well as a nearby butcher who does the same, adding poultry to the mix.

For the vegetarians who are tempted to weigh in - yes, I know humane slaughter is an oxymoron, and organic beef doesn't has the same ring to it as organic vegetables. But the fact is that, right or wrong, many of us eat beef. The least we can do is not contribute to industrial feedlot meat raising and processing.

[mzteris]

5. if you're going to eat meat -

eat local.

You'll help the economy, the ecology, the quality of the product you consume, and more than likely, the short lives of the animals will be little a bit better than it would have been in an industrial lot.

[Livluvgrow]

6. Grass fed all the way

I get all local from Western North Carolina. The taste is so good that I wont buy the store sold stuff. Last time I tried that stuff I was just disgusted. Know Yer Farmer

[mzteris]

10. everything's better from North Carolina!

:hi:

[matt819]

12. That may well be

But then, for us here in New England, that wouldn't be local :-)

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Links to Local Farmers Directories:

I can't vouch for these directories, they are worth checking out tho.

http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html

http://www.eatwild.com/products/ ( I found this helpful in our state)

http://www.localharvest.org/

[PO Pops]

8. Cows weren't built for feed-lots

Hi folks, first post here.

I don't know where these numbers come from, according to the USDA live beef cattle are selling for an average $97 "per hundred weight" (97¢ a pound) and dressed beef is $153/100# - that's up from $83 & $140 respectively this month last year.
http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/browseby/txt/LM_CT180.TXT

Someone mentioned imported beef, the US imports cull and range beef to mix with the trimmings of our fat corn-fed beef to make hamburger; we export the less expensive chucks and rounds (that would normally be used in hamburger) because they cost so much to produce in feed lots. Japan, Mexico and Canada are our largest export markets.

Anyway, as was said, eat grass fed beef, it's better for you and better for the planet.

:^)

[grasswire]

9. I'd like to see a comprehensive report on retail beef.

I was at a supermarket meat counter a couple of weeks ago and asked the butcher why the signs on the meat don't show USDA choice or select or whatever any more. He said that all grassfed beef is select grade, and that because they can get more money for grassfed (select) beef they no longer put signs on whatever USDA choice meat they do carry.

So cheap beef (select) and grassfed beef (select) are all commanding prices that were once reserved for USDA choice (tender, marbelized).

Somewhere in that the consumer is getting screwed over.

[PO Pops]

11. Well, prime beef is really scarce,

Well, prime beef is really scarce, only one or 2 percent of all animals grade prime so it probably goes to restaurants or high line butchers. But you're right, grass finished beef isn't full of fat in the muscle - which, along with maturity, is how beef is graded. I'd guess everything you buy at the store is feed grain to fatten it up - some just gets fatter than others.

But grass finished beef ain't cheap, it's the cool thing nowadays, google it up and be surprised! By the way all beef is raised on grass, it's that last 200 pounds of white fat that comes at the feedlot, Grass fed beef has a yellow fat that Mr. Mom just isn't used to any more, pitty!

[matt819]

13. Maybe, maybe not

But, you know, I'm not sure I care all that much about USDA labels when I'm buying meat raised and grass-fed locally and that passes through few, if any, additional hands before it reached my butcher.

By the way, you really do have to ask questions. When I decided to stop eating feedlot meat earlier this year, I started buying meat at a local grocery store with its own butchers. They were pretty knowledgeable, very helpful, and, to the extent you can tell anything by looking at raw meat, it looked pretty good. Then I asked the question. Hey, is this local grass fed meat? Is the chicken local free range chicken? No on all counts. It was all industrial beef and chicken.

[grasswire]

15. I don't think that's my point.

My point is that the retail meat industry has made out like bandits by using the trend among a minority of meat buyers to prefer grassfed beef to mask the selling of select grade (non grassfed) beef at the prices USDA choice meat (superior to select) used to command. When meat retailers transitioned to select grade for their standard beef offerings, they did not lower prices to reflect their lower costs.

Okay, I gave myself a headache.

[jonathan_seer]

14. hey cool, maybe beef production will enter a self-sustaining downward spiral

The biggest benefit will be ALL Americans as all the federal land currently so degraded from cattle grazing, heals and restores itself to a healthy ecosystem.

Anything that cuts the amount of beef produced is a good thing (I'm talking the factory farm format - not the small scale local producer).

I'm not a vegetarian either.

Rather I think the singular focus on beef as "meat" prevents us culturally from accepting other much more healthier sources of meat, like Rabbit - my fav. It's something I rarely buy though since it's often $9/lb.

Yes I know we all have our preferences, but they aren't genetic.

Many people prefer beef, because it was practically the only source of meat outside of chicken and pork they ever had.

And a "quality steak" is considered the very best, because of marketing.

People actually believe that a hamburger patty must be made of some sort of beef, when they are always slathered with some sort of topping completely covering up the beef flavor. Really any meat for hamburger will do in that context.

Some wild herds are large enough to start a sustainable wild harvest like Caribu, which are dying of starvation thanks the near extermination of wolves which kept their population from exploding and exceeding the lands carabu carrying capacity.

And wild deer which is many times the size it was prior to Europeans coming here is available but unused.

Oh and NO to horses - just thought I should forstall anyone who thinks I want that, nor any animal that we consider pets.

Honestly it's not that beef is bad, but our cultural focus on Beef as sources of meat is not a good thing.

Diversity would improve the environment and not require so much to produce.

[mbperrin]

16. Single buyer markets are actually monopsonies. Single Sellers are monopolies.

I know, a tiny point, but valid vocabulary. Thanks and no offense intended.