beef
JBS to sell world’s largest cattle-feeding operation to investment group
Meatpacking giant JBS has agreed to sell Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, the world’s largest feedlot operation, to New York-based Pinnacle Asset Management. Five Rivers feeds 900,000 head in multiple states.
Colorado may revive country-of-origin labels on beef
A bill in the Colorado legislature would require that raw beef sold in the state be identified as either “USA Beef” or “Imported Beef,” says Drovers. The bill’s House sponsor says it would boost cattle prices in Colorado.
More meat: It’s what’s for dinner
Americans are going to eat a lot of meat in 2018 — 222.2 pounds per person, according to USDA projections that are based on the expectation of a comparatively strong economy that will give people more disposable income.
Brazil meatpacker believes U.S. will allow imports soon
The chief executive of a large Brazilian meatpacking company says the United States is expected to re-open its borders to fresh beef from Brazil in early 2018, reported Reuters. Shipments were shut off in June.
Montana Senator helps Chinese win $200-million sweetheart deal for cattle
During President Donald Trump’s recent trip to China, Montana's Republican Senator Steve Daines negotiated a $300 million beef cattle deal between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and the Chinese e-retailer JD.com. The deal calls for the retailer to buy $200 million of cattle between 2018 and 2020, and invest $100 million in a new feedlot and packing plant in Montana. Some ranchers are concerned that this unusual deal will favor certain ranchers over others, and further concentrate power over the American livestock sector in the hands of Chinese companies.
Grassfed beef has high carbon impact, report says
Grassfed beef generally produces more carbon than it sequesters, according to a report by Oxford University’s Food Climate Research Network. Proponents of grassfed beef have argued that ruminants like cows can have positive effects on rangeland if they’re encouraged to move across the landscape, rather than being left to overgraze a particular area. The animals’ eating habits and the pressure from their hooves can encourage deeper root growth and thus greater carbon sequestration by grasses, explains Grist.
Climate change may help some Northeast livestock producers
Climate change’s impact on animal agriculture in the northeastern United States is expected to be mild overall — and in some cases new weather patterns might even help producers, says a study by Penn State, published in the journal Climatic Change.
Impossible Burger opens new factory, fueling its vegan expansion
With the opening of a new factory, the plant-based company Impossible Burger says it plans to have its much-anticipated burgers on 1,000 menus by the end of 2017. “In mid-August, a factory in Oakland quietly began accepting shipments of wheat protein, potato protein, and heme, a “plant blood” produced via genetically modified yeast, says New Food Economy.
Growth of plant-based foods leaves other sectors in the dust, says Nielsen research
The market for plant-based foods grew an average of 8.1 percent last year, compared to a decline of 0.2 percent for all other foods, according to data compiled by the retail sales research group, Nielsen. According to the report, which was funded by the The Good Food Institute and Plant Based Foods Association, the market for plant-based meats specifically rose 6 percent from a year ago, while plant-based dairy alternatives saw 20 percent growth. Nielsen found a 5-percent decrease in cow-milk sales, but a 3.1-percent increase in sales of plant-based milk.
‘Pink slime’ settlement cost at least $177 million
The parent company of ABC paid $177 million to Beef Products Inc. to settle a defamation suit filed by the South Dakota meat processor over news stories aired in 2012, said CNN Money. A lawyer for BPI told CNN the settlement was larger than the figure listed by Walt Disney Co. in a quarterly earnings report, leading the network to say "the rest will presumably be covered by insurance."
Meet the farmers who say NAFTA hasn’t helped them
Big Ag has long chanted the benefits of NAFTA to American farmers, pointing out that the free-trade deal with Mexico and Canada has quadrupled U.S. farm exports since it went into effect in 1994. “But despite the largely pro-trade drumbeat in the ag sector, there are plenty of farmers who feel otherwise,” say Kristina Johnson and Sam Fromartz in FERN’s latest story, published with NPR’s The Salt.
Interior: Time to delist the Yellowstone grizzly
The grizzly bear will soon be delisted as an endangered species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, according to a statement from the Department of the Interior. The area around Yellowstone National Park covers more than 20,000 square miles of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
BPI and ABC News go to court over ‘pink slime’
Jury selection starts this week for a lawsuit filed by Dakota Dunes-based Beef Products Inc. in 2012 against ABC News and correspondent Jim Avila over “pink slime.” BPI is seeking $1 billion in defamation charges, claiming that ABC made its product — beef that has had the fat removed and then ammonia gas added to kill bacteria — seem unsafe to consume.
Will Trump’s America First policy make COOL great again?
Under the threat of $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs by Canada and Mexico, Congress repealed a law 16 months ago that required packages of beef and and pork to say where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. Activist agricultural groups say a revival of the labels would be a complement to President Trump's America First policy and his complaint of unfair practices by U.S. neighbors.
Despite Brazil meat scandal, JBS expands reach in U.S.
Health authorities in Europe, China, and Brazil have all pulled beef from the Brazilian meat giant JBS off of grocery store shelves, in response to evidence that the company was involved in a massive corruption scandal to export rotten and contaminated meat. Yet in the U.S., the Trump Administration has yet to take meaningful action against JBS imports from Brazil. On the contrary, JBS has continued to expand its reach and political power in the U.S.
Press China to import U.S. beef, senators ask Trump
Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump are to meet face to face for the first time today in Florida, with analysts saying trade issues offer the most likely area for agreement. Three dozen senators wrote to Trump ahead of the two-day bilateral meeting to call on the Chinese to admit shipments of U.S. beef.
USDA says it will double-check imports of Brazilian beef
With the safety of Brazilian beef in question in a meat-inspection scandal, the USDA said it will re-inspect and test fall shipments of beef from the South American country for pathogens. The USDA said none of the 21 facilities targeted by Brazilian police have shipped meat to the United States.
Aggie honeymoon with Trump ‘was over before it ever really began’
More than 60 percent of U.S. red meat exports go to countries involved in NAFTA or TPP, says the U.S. Meat Export Federation, part of the chorus of livestock and meat industry groups worried by the Trump administration upheaval of trade agreements. "The honeymoon with many in agriculture was over before it ever really began, it appears," says Beef magazine, adding, "And many in ag don’t like it."