3 ms·

As an American why would you buy Brazilian beef when it’s already available here probably for cheaper, local, and higher quality?

mistrial9 3y ago
ask the chain burger fast-food companies.. they buy it
- righthand 3y ago
  Who buys the chain burgers fast-food companies burgers?
  - freejazz 3y ago
    Americans.
    - righthand 3y ago
      GOTO 10
    - hombre_fatal 3y ago
      Actually, everyone. Even stereotypical food snobs like the French https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/19/the-french-have-fallen-in-love-with-american-fast-food-heres-why.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/19/the-french-have-fallen-in-lo... The world would be much better if fast food were a US-only phenomenon but that's trivially untrue.
      - freejazz 3y ago
        I didn't mean for my response to be exhaustive so much as directly responsive to the question asked... why Americans eat the Brazilian beef?
augusto-moura 3y ago
I can see two reasons: maybe it is not cheaper, or maybe there's not enough for local consumers. There should definitely be some economic incentive somewhere. Higher quality is debatable, foreign imports are not necessarily "lower quality", I'm a Brazilian so I'm on the other side of the coin, our beef is anything but low quality. The problem that the article wants to expose is that much of it is raised on illegal ranches, more often than not on the deflorested Amazon. Being local is not something that food chains care about.
- righthand 3y ago
  Doubtful that the mass ranched cattle is raised to the same quality standards as in America, especially if they know their beef is going to fast food. Ex. Grass fed, hormone-free Also I understand what the article points out about illegal ranches supplying corporations but Who eats the food from the food chains?
  - augusto-moura 3y ago
    This is why I mentioned the word debatable. Brazil has high-quality standards for cattle; I specifically live in an agribusiness state in Brazil (very far away from the Amazon, although still having ecological problems). The absolute majority of cattle here are raised in free-range being grass-fed, without any hormones, and this is exactly the problem, free-ranging demands a lot of land, and ultimately this land is being made by cutting down old-growth forests. Let's not make assumptions about quality when we don't have enough information from each country to make an educated guess. I will point out that Brazil is the largest exporter of agricultural products in the West, and we comply with very demanding markets, including the US. The problem being cited is not about quality—we are compliant with the FDA—but the ethics of ranging cattle in previously Amazon forests
    - righthand 3y ago
      Right I never said it was about quality. I asked why an American would buy exported beef and quality obviously is a factor in a buying decision. Quality has to be proven, something that is difficult to understand and prove when the product is an export. I am asking a different question than what is demonstrated by the article, intentionally.
wil421 3y ago
Because it’s cheaper for Mc’Donalds and Burger King but probably not for the average consumer. Grocery store beef quality has gone down after Covid except Prime grade and local butchers $$$.
- zackmorris 3y ago
  For context, I've known that McDonald's uses rain forest beef since the mid-1980s when my dad first told me about it. I thought they stopped that for a while, but nope: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-30/mcdonald-s-linked-to-amazon-deforestation-in-new-report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-30/mcdonald-... Nothing has been done to stop it because of a number of cultural problems: 1) Americans love beef: "why would I eat what food eats?" 2) America could stop all conflict around the world, from deforestation to war to civil rights abuses, if that wasn't directly at odds with the appetites of our capitalist empire and 3) scarcity mindset for survival has so dominated the Global South for so long that nature is seen as a resource to be exploited, far below even the dignity of human life, due to unrelenting debt pressure from the IMF to create a wage slave class for harvesting cash crops and labor/resource-intensive commodities like beef.
  - cutemonster 3y ago
    > 2) America could stop all conflict around the world, from deforestation to war to civil rights abuses That's nonsense. China and Russia are exploiting development countries as best they can (too). I wonder how you got the idea that it'd be only the US? Websearch for "china cobalt mines congo" for example. Interesting about McDonald's anyway
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
How would you even know where it came from?
- righthand 3y ago
  Why would you continue when you found out?
TechDebtDevin 3y ago
[flagged]
- tcgv 3y ago
  It's not hard to understand: It's affordable, culturally acceptable, the taste is appealing to the palate, it's an easy source of protein, people are disengaged to know the details of the supply chain and as such don't really engage on discussing the ethics of modern meat production.
  - hombre_fatal 3y ago
    You can also push a concession out of most normal people that it's unethical, in person. Only online do people act like it's not an elephant in everyone's room—just one that we don't think about unless scrolling past a documentary or something. It's just incredibly hard to red pill out of the comforts you were born into.
- cutemonster 3y ago
  Why would they care, when they can't see the animal suffering in front of their nose? When it's just something abstract in the newspapers sometimes, and it's more fun to watch Netflix or hang out with friends than read more about that?
- hulitu 3y ago
  > Why would you murder and bleed out a cute little animal for calories. Who are you talking to ? We don't eat cute puppies here. /s

mistrial9 3y ago

ask the chain burger fast-food companies.. they buy it

righthand 3y ago
Who buys the chain burgers fast-food companies burgers?
- freejazz 3y ago
  Americans.
  - righthand 3y ago
    GOTO 10
  - hombre_fatal 3y ago
    Actually, everyone. Even stereotypical food snobs like the French https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/19/the-french-have-fallen-in-love-with-american-fast-food-heres-why.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/19/the-french-have-fallen-in-lo... The world would be much better if fast food were a US-only phenomenon but that's trivially untrue.
    - freejazz 3y ago
      I didn't mean for my response to be exhaustive so much as directly responsive to the question asked... why Americans eat the Brazilian beef?

augusto-moura 3y ago

I can see two reasons: maybe it is not cheaper, or maybe there's not enough for local consumers. There should definitely be some economic incentive somewhere. Higher quality is debatable, foreign imports are not necessarily "lower quality", I'm a Brazilian so I'm on the other side of the coin, our beef is anything but low quality. The problem that the article wants to expose is that much of it is raised on illegal ranches, more often than not on the deflorested Amazon. Being local is not something that food chains care about.

righthand 3y ago
Doubtful that the mass ranched cattle is raised to the same quality standards as in America, especially if they know their beef is going to fast food. Ex. Grass fed, hormone-free Also I understand what the article points out about illegal ranches supplying corporations but Who eats the food from the food chains?
- augusto-moura 3y ago
  This is why I mentioned the word debatable. Brazil has high-quality standards for cattle; I specifically live in an agribusiness state in Brazil (very far away from the Amazon, although still having ecological problems). The absolute majority of cattle here are raised in free-range being grass-fed, without any hormones, and this is exactly the problem, free-ranging demands a lot of land, and ultimately this land is being made by cutting down old-growth forests. Let's not make assumptions about quality when we don't have enough information from each country to make an educated guess. I will point out that Brazil is the largest exporter of agricultural products in the West, and we comply with very demanding markets, including the US. The problem being cited is not about quality—we are compliant with the FDA—but the ethics of ranging cattle in previously Amazon forests
  - righthand 3y ago
    Right I never said it was about quality. I asked why an American would buy exported beef and quality obviously is a factor in a buying decision. Quality has to be proven, something that is difficult to understand and prove when the product is an export. I am asking a different question than what is demonstrated by the article, intentionally.

wil421 3y ago

Because it’s cheaper for Mc’Donalds and Burger King but probably not for the average consumer. Grocery store beef quality has gone down after Covid except Prime grade and local butchers $$$.

zackmorris 3y ago
For context, I've known that McDonald's uses rain forest beef since the mid-1980s when my dad first told me about it. I thought they stopped that for a while, but nope: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-30/mcdonald-s-linked-to-amazon-deforestation-in-new-report https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-30/mcdonald-... Nothing has been done to stop it because of a number of cultural problems: 1) Americans love beef: "why would I eat what food eats?" 2) America could stop all conflict around the world, from deforestation to war to civil rights abuses, if that wasn't directly at odds with the appetites of our capitalist empire and 3) scarcity mindset for survival has so dominated the Global South for so long that nature is seen as a resource to be exploited, far below even the dignity of human life, due to unrelenting debt pressure from the IMF to create a wage slave class for harvesting cash crops and labor/resource-intensive commodities like beef.
- cutemonster 3y ago
  > 2) America could stop all conflict around the world, from deforestation to war to civil rights abuses That's nonsense. China and Russia are exploiting development countries as best they can (too). I wonder how you got the idea that it'd be only the US? Websearch for "china cobalt mines congo" for example. Interesting about McDonald's anyway

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago

How would you even know where it came from?

righthand 3y ago
Why would you continue when you found out?

TechDebtDevin 3y ago

[flagged]

tcgv 3y ago
It's not hard to understand: It's affordable, culturally acceptable, the taste is appealing to the palate, it's an easy source of protein, people are disengaged to know the details of the supply chain and as such don't really engage on discussing the ethics of modern meat production.
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  You can also push a concession out of most normal people that it's unethical, in person. Only online do people act like it's not an elephant in everyone's room—just one that we don't think about unless scrolling past a documentary or something. It's just incredibly hard to red pill out of the comforts you were born into.
cutemonster 3y ago
Why would they care, when they can't see the animal suffering in front of their nose? When it's just something abstract in the newspapers sometimes, and it's more fun to watch Netflix or hang out with friends than read more about that?
hulitu 3y ago
> Why would you murder and bleed out a cute little animal for calories. Who are you talking to ? We don't eat cute puppies here. /s