OT: Gas prices across the United States are at their highest level

No, he is the largest but far from majority. He has 242,000 acres.

Don't forget China China's 2013 purchase of the world's largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, raised red flags with many. ... The acquisition of Smithfield Foods put 146,000 acres of American farmland into Chinese hands, making China one of the largest overseas owners of farmland in the United States.

Jeff Bezos owns more land. 290,000, but not all farm. Others have much more than the two of them combined

I read an op ed the other day where the author said he thought the clock was ticking on the production of beef cattle. They need too much feed, too much water, too much land, and too much time before they're ready for market.

His position was that plant-based 'beef' will overtake the real thing, causing a ripple through the livestock sector. Pork and chicken seem to be safe, so far.

I haven't tried plant-based beef. Has anyone here tried it? What did you think?

I've not tried it but I eat less beef than I used to. The plant based stuff may take over but that will be decades from now. I may try it some day but I'm not in a rush.

Growing beef is not very efficient but we've been able to supply the food and water needed so no big deal in the past. We have to be careful though, substitures like almond milk take loads of water to produce too.

Supper tonight was a nice grass fed bison burger. I went for several years without red meat but if I'm going to eat it I want the real thing.

If the "not burger" at Burger King is an example. it sucks. I tried one twice at different stores just to be sure it wasn't just one bad operator. This is a little burger buried in mayonnaise, lettuce, ketchup and tomato. I can't even imagine how bad a "not steak" must be. I think the "end of beef" is just wishful dreaming from PETA. It is sort of like the end of oil. Maybe some day but by then Soylent Green will be food.

I wonder if sheep are more efficient? We don't have a big lamb/mutton industry here but most folks I know find it quite good. It's not used as much because it's more expensive, yes mutton can be perfect with the right spicing. I imagine you can make enough off the wool to afford to 'winter over'. I don't know how good they are at surviving on the same sort of grassland as cattle.

When the price dropped dramatically after OZ imports, a lot of people tried it and were pleased.

I tried it. A Beyond Burger. I suppose it would taste like meat if you hadn't eaten any meat in a few years. I had a taste and threw it away.

I eat many vegetarian meals. I don't need to torture myself with fake meat.

Cindy Hamilton

When I was a kid we often had leg of lamb, lamb stew, and lamb chops although the 'lamb' may have been a little long in tooth. It wasn't more expensive than beef and wasn't an import.

I can't find historical data going back to the '50s unfortunately. I don't know how large a part the decline in wool prices with the popularity of synthetics played. Starting with Earl Butz the USDA promoted factory farming and beef may fit into the feedlot program better than sheep.

Tastes change too. I went hunting for beef liver recently and could only find some frozen that proved to be pulpy when thawed. It may be regional; offal is more popular in the southwest due to the hispanics.

USDA seems to define all sheep as 'Lamb' but viewing it in the stores, we also sell mutton (older sheep). It seems to ust get labeled 'Lamb' (which is technically only 1 year old I think).

If it's dark red, it's apt to be mutton. Mutton is perfectly tasty too! Takes well to a bit of different cooking but quite good.

Wool prices may have made a nosedive, but I'm thinking that it adds just enough, you can raise sheep for food then reap a second income of some level from the wool. I don't think it would work to raise just for wool and maybe not just for meat, but if they went sheep milk cheeses, meat AND wool, it should work right?

In the 50s lamb was the cheap meat but I don't remember it tasting like the stuff we get these days. I was also surprised there wasn't more lamb on the menu in New Zealand. They seemed to have more beef but it was over cooked stuff in meat pies or burger. I suspect it was "cow beef", slaughtered dairy cows, because they were whining that the US was dumping milk on the market cheaper than they could produce it. They had created a huge dairy business model and it was imploding on them. They were very vocal against the trans pacific trade deal when I was there. They said it benefitted US dairy interests too much. It was interesting listening to NZ talk Radio and TV tho. You got a little different perspective on things. Paul Henry was fun to listen too. We kept streaming his show back here until he retired and moved to LA.

About an hour after I wrote that pork and chicken seem to be safe from their plant-based equivalents, I saw a TV commercial advertising plant-based chicken. News to me.

I can see the beef market shrinking to the point where it becomes a delicacy for the affluent, while the rest of us eat the plant-based stuff. I think that could happen quicker than most people think.

Probably because chicken and pork are cheaper than they can make plant based replacements.

I paid $15 a pound for rib steak the other day, you could be right.

Meat will become like it was on a TV show space station in the future. No cows, but a few rats around to make burgers out of.

Sure, if you pick the right breed. Hair sheep like the Katahdin are favored for meat production. They're low maintenance and good breeders. If you're not interested in wool, shearing is just another chore. Katahdins don't develop a fleece and shed in the spring.

They're also not picky eaters. A few years ago the city arranged to have a local rancher run his sheep on one of the open spaces. It was to be an ecologically friendly solution to invasive species control. The sheep were very skilled in recognizing leafy spurge and other targeted species

-- and not eating them. Katahdins are close to goats as far as eating anything that doesn't move too fast.

On Sat, 3 Jul 2021 17:43:11 -0400, Ed Pawlowski posted for all of us to digest...

Thanks for the update. I didn't know Smithfield was owned by the Chinese.