With US Beef Herd Smallest Since 1952, Cargill Closing Plainview TX Plant - Not Enough Cattle,

[hatrack]

EDIT

When Cargill announced the closing of its Plainview, Texas, cattle operation, they cited a record low cattle supply as the result of the region’s severe drought. Though scientific models don’t yet have the precision to directly tie a particular weather event, be it a storm or a drought, to global warming trends, there is plenty of evidence indicating that drought is clearly increasing as the result of the changing climate. More clear is the linkage between the beef industry and the changes to our planetary thermostat. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that somewhere between 14 and 22 percent of all greenhouse gases were generated directly by the meat industry. Scientific American says that beef production produces 13 times as much global warming as chicken production, and 57 times as much as growing potatoes.

In fact, the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it has been since 1952, due, not just to the drought, but also to increased feed costs. Herd liquidations are taking their toll as well. Beef consumption in 2011 was 25.6 billion pounds, down 8.25 percent from a decade earlier. The decline over the past five years was even steeper, at over 12 percent. According to Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health this trend is driven primarily by health concerns rather than environmental ones.

The drought, which has been declared a natural disaster in 597 counties in 14 states, severely impacted the domestic corn and soybean crop, pushing feed prices higher. Meat producers have pointed fingers at the ethanol mandate, also known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for adding to the pricing pressure. However, increased production in other countries in response to the US drought resulted in a global corn crop that was only 2 percent below the year before.

Most of the 2000 employees who work at the facility are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local Union 540 which is urging the company to relocate as many workers as possible to other plants.

EDIT

http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/01/cargill-cattle-plant/

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. global climate change - up close and personal.

So Gov. Parry, will your response be to hold more days of prayer for rain? Isn't Cargill a large contributor?

[madville]

3. Close the plant, get rid if 2,000 union workers

Reopen plant next year with contract labor through a temp agency.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. while the gov brags about increasing employment in the state.

[Demeter]

2. Good thing other nations won't buy our beef because of inadequate safety controls

[fasttense]

4. I don't believe Cargill. They have something else up their sleeves. n/t

[newfie11]

5. No pasture, hay $300/ton when you can find it

Corn $7. A bushel. You bet ranchers sold off large numbers of cattle. Beef isn't the only one, pork is right behind.

I Live in the corner of Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska border. We have had at most 3 inches of snow all winter. There has been no snow cover crop for wheat. I don't know what cargills troubles are but I can tell you this is serious for the farmers and ranchers out here.

Global warming is real out here and there will be more mega fires this year!

Meanwhile the repugs and big corporations go on the greedy merry way.

[Robb]

6. Around 85% of Canadian beef is exported to the US to be processed here.

"Not enough cattle," my hat.

[NickB79]

10. Canadian cattle are usually butchered further north

In the meatpacking plants found in the Upper Midwest and northern Plains states. It's too expensive to justify shipping cattle further south most of the time, especially now that rail demands are skyrocketing due to oil exports from Bakken and material transports to circumvent the incredibly low Mississippi.

This plant is in Texas; it's primary source of cattle comes from the southern portion of the US, where the drought has been devastating.

[hatrack]

8. In case anyone was wondering, I also blocked Commandante Assclown (hidden message above)

[phantom power]

9. I noticed a pair of six ounce steaks with a $12 price tag in the groceries this weekend

I admit I don't pay a lot of close attention to food prices, but that seemed kinda steep

[hatrack]

11. $12?!? Maybe filet mignon?

Can't think of too many other cuts that would command prices like that, but then, I don't buy beef all that often anyway. Will plead ignorance here . . .

[Eleanors38]

12. Hunt harder. Hunt better. Fill the freezer.

[NickB79]

13. That won't help for long, unfortunately

I always laugh when I see someone on Doomsday Preppers talking about "living off the land" and proceed to pull out a deer rifle or shotgun.

If everyone with a gun hit the fields and forests to hunt their own meat, you wouldn't find anything bigger than a sparrow left in the woods within a month.

I hunt as well, but if pressed I'd rely on my garden and fruit trees far more than my guns to provide for the family. I'll trade a venison steak for a sack of beans and potatoes any day.

[Eleanors38]

15. No worries, I don't think the woods will be overrun any time soon!

We live in an urbanized culture which has, at best, a deep suspicion of anything more natural than a grackle pooping on the windshield. Just a personal survival choice.

Good idea for a documentary:

The Bug-Out Kit - -

The grid goes down. No one is answering. What's in your's?

[lonestarnot]

16. Moo.