3 ms·

Someone must have decided they weren't "essential". Big mistake.

by Noumenon72 1y ago

andsoitis 1y ago
Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment.
- kristjansson 1y ago
  And we should encourage that by leveraging the response to a natural disaster to advance your particular policy goals?
- ajmurmann 1y ago
  Doesn't this impact wildlife as well? Apparently the Florida Key Deer was threatened by this a decade ago: https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infestation-kills-endangered-deer https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infesta...
- Numerlor 1y ago
  Screwworm also infects wildlife and occasionally humans, it's really not something you want to have in the area if you can help it
  - 20after4 1y ago
    It sounds like it's more than occasionally infecting humans: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/man-eater-screw-worm-parasite-honduras-central-america/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...
- raverbashing 1y ago
  Funny, you don't seem to have beef with the worm eating beef But it can and does infect humans and other animals
  - AlecSchueler 1y ago
    They didn't say they had beef with anyone eating beef.
- lazide 1y ago
  Screwworms will eat people too, if allowed to. You really don’t want them in your area.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  Already happening. Beef is rapidly becomming unaffordable. A steak at the supermarket is >$20. Can't imagine what they cost at a restaurant. I've switched to mostly turkey, chicken, and pork.
  - alephnerd 1y ago
    That's due to issues around monopolization in the Dairy and Cattle industry in the US [1]. 70% of all processors in the dairy and cattle industry are now owned by 3 companies. Processors don't own cattle - they just process raw material like dairy and meat into cheese and pasteurized milk and handle the entire supply chain. But because they control the supply chain, distribution, and even the feed [0] used they can set rates and vendors used by farmers. I posted an article about this earlier on HN, but it seems HNers like to talk about antitrust for search engines and not dairy and beef production. Antitrust for me, oligopolic market forces for thee. [0] - https://www.landolakesinc.com/what-we-do/animal-nutrition/ https://www.landolakesinc.com/what-we-do/animal-nutrition/ [1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-survive-the-next-decade-the-brutal-math-of-consolidation/ https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv... ___________ To u/andrew_lettuce below: Canada has the exact same issue of processor consolidation and oligopoly in agriculture as the US [0][1][2] Arguably, it's worse than the US because this process started in the 1990s in Canada [3] versus the 2010s in the US. [0] - https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/terrence-galarneau/blog/4599086-Supply-Management-Explained https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/terrence-galarneau/blog/4... [1] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7350140/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7350140/ [2] - https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/why-only-three-meat-packing-plants-process-the-vast-majority-of-canadas-beef https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/why-only-t... [3] - https://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/RH/RH_E_97_05.htm https://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/RH/RH_E_97_05.htm
    - gruez 1y ago
      Is this supported by the data? During the pandemic people were also blaming "monopolization" or "consolidation" for the rise in grocery prices, but in reality the margins of publicly traded supermarket companies went up by a percentage point or two.
- VaderLied 1y ago
  [dead]
- alephnerd 1y ago
  > Better for health, the environment. India has an equally large cattle industry that outproduces American dairy and cattle, yet their industry has a fraction of the carbon and methane impact as American dairy and cattle rearing [0] because the feed used in Indian industry is crop residue instead of industrialized meat+grain mixtures. American Ag is hyperconsolidated into 3 processors [1] which makes it difficult for innovations to develop, whereas an equally large country like India has 228 local run dairy cooperatives and multiple private sector players each generating around $500M-2B in revenue. Yet, the comments I'm seeing here on HN (and with those who I chatted with at the state level Dems) are reminiscent to those who blamed autoworkers and coalworkers for not learning to code back in 2014. If someone like me who has been somewhat hesitant about Lina Khan until after getting deep into the dairy industry recently, I think HNers should recognize the value this train of thought can have in 2026 and 2028. 84% of Americans consume dairy or dairy alternative (still synthesized using dairy) products [2] - don't make this yet another culture war topic [0] - https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/from-extinction-to-empire-can-u-s-dairy-learn-from-indias-white-revolution/ https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/from-extinction-t... [1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-survive-the-next-decade-the-brutal-math-of-consolidation/ https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv... [2] - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights/similar-yet-different-meet-todays-consumer-of-dairy-and-alternatives https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights...
  - gruez 1y ago
    >India has an equally large cattle industry that outproduces American dairy and cattle That's a tad misleading. The statistics I could find only says that India outproduces the US in dairy, not beef. Rounding >yet their industry has a fraction of the carbon and methane impact as American dairy and cattle rearing [0] I did a cursory search in your source for "carbon" and "methane" and couldn't find anything to back this claim, only vague claims about how India does "Regenerative farming" and is therefore "low methane". >because the feed used in Indian industry is crop residue instead of industrialized meat+grain mixtures. That's not scalable and only works because the country is poor and beef/dairy consumption isn't high. There's no way you can supply American level demand for beef/dairy by only using crop residue. >American Ag is hyperconsolidated into 3 processors which makes it difficult for innovations to develop, whereas an equally large country like India has 26 state run dairy cooperatives and multiple private sector players. You can easily tell an opposite story about how consolidate companies have bigger budgets for R&D and capital projects, as opposed to 26 cooperatives each trying to implement some sort of strategy.
- zahlman 1y ago
  Screwworms will also infect humans, with horrific and potentially fatal consequences.
- FpUser 1y ago
  >"Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment." We can also live in a cave, better for the environment.
  - f1shy 1y ago
    Or just dissapear (which btw, no joking, is what some people propose)
- spamizbad 1y ago
  I guess nature is “finding a way” after all…
- artursapek 1y ago
  125lb take
- ben_w 1y ago
  While I am a vegetarian and thus am an existence proof, there's multiple different ways in which something can be "essential". Anyone going "let's stop a thing today which will messes with a non-trivial fraction of our food production in a few years' time, without preparing either that food sector nor the dietary choices of the consumers before that happens" is definitely making a high-risk strategic choice.
footlose_3815 1y ago
Twice

Someone must have decided they weren't "essential". Big mistake.

andsoitis 1y ago

Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment.

kristjansson 1y ago
And we should encourage that by leveraging the response to a natural disaster to advance your particular policy goals?
ajmurmann 1y ago
Doesn't this impact wildlife as well? Apparently the Florida Key Deer was threatened by this a decade ago: https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infestation-kills-endangered-deer https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infesta...
Numerlor 1y ago
Screwworm also infects wildlife and occasionally humans, it's really not something you want to have in the area if you can help it
- 20after4 1y ago
  It sounds like it's more than occasionally infecting humans: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/man-eater-screw-worm-parasite-honduras-central-america/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...
raverbashing 1y ago
Funny, you don't seem to have beef with the worm eating beef But it can and does infect humans and other animals
- AlecSchueler 1y ago
  They didn't say they had beef with anyone eating beef.
lazide 1y ago
Screwworms will eat people too, if allowed to. You really don’t want them in your area.
SoftTalker 1y ago
Already happening. Beef is rapidly becomming unaffordable. A steak at the supermarket is >$20. Can't imagine what they cost at a restaurant. I've switched to mostly turkey, chicken, and pork.
- alephnerd 1y ago
  That's due to issues around monopolization in the Dairy and Cattle industry in the US [1]. 70% of all processors in the dairy and cattle industry are now owned by 3 companies. Processors don't own cattle - they just process raw material like dairy and meat into cheese and pasteurized milk and handle the entire supply chain. But because they control the supply chain, distribution, and even the feed [0] used they can set rates and vendors used by farmers. I posted an article about this earlier on HN, but it seems HNers like to talk about antitrust for search engines and not dairy and beef production. Antitrust for me, oligopolic market forces for thee. [0] - https://www.landolakesinc.com/what-we-do/animal-nutrition/ https://www.landolakesinc.com/what-we-do/animal-nutrition/ [1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-survive-the-next-decade-the-brutal-math-of-consolidation/ https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv... ___________ To u/andrew_lettuce below: Canada has the exact same issue of processor consolidation and oligopoly in agriculture as the US [0][1][2] Arguably, it's worse than the US because this process started in the 1990s in Canada [3] versus the 2010s in the US. [0] - https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/terrence-galarneau/blog/4599086-Supply-Management-Explained https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/terrence-galarneau/blog/4... [1] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7350140/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7350140/ [2] - https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/why-only-three-meat-packing-plants-process-the-vast-majority-of-canadas-beef https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/why-only-t... [3] - https://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/RH/RH_E_97_05.htm https://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/RH/RH_E_97_05.htm
  - gruez 1y ago
    Is this supported by the data? During the pandemic people were also blaming "monopolization" or "consolidation" for the rise in grocery prices, but in reality the margins of publicly traded supermarket companies went up by a percentage point or two.
VaderLied 1y ago
[dead]
alephnerd 1y ago
> Better for health, the environment. India has an equally large cattle industry that outproduces American dairy and cattle, yet their industry has a fraction of the carbon and methane impact as American dairy and cattle rearing [0] because the feed used in Indian industry is crop residue instead of industrialized meat+grain mixtures. American Ag is hyperconsolidated into 3 processors [1] which makes it difficult for innovations to develop, whereas an equally large country like India has 228 local run dairy cooperatives and multiple private sector players each generating around $500M-2B in revenue. Yet, the comments I'm seeing here on HN (and with those who I chatted with at the state level Dems) are reminiscent to those who blamed autoworkers and coalworkers for not learning to code back in 2014. If someone like me who has been somewhat hesitant about Lina Khan until after getting deep into the dairy industry recently, I think HNers should recognize the value this train of thought can have in 2026 and 2028. 84% of Americans consume dairy or dairy alternative (still synthesized using dairy) products [2] - don't make this yet another culture war topic [0] - https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/from-extinction-to-empire-can-u-s-dairy-learn-from-indias-white-revolution/ https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/from-extinction-t... [1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-survive-the-next-decade-the-brutal-math-of-consolidation/ https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv... [2] - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights/similar-yet-different-meet-todays-consumer-of-dairy-and-alternatives https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights...
- gruez 1y ago
  >India has an equally large cattle industry that outproduces American dairy and cattle That's a tad misleading. The statistics I could find only says that India outproduces the US in dairy, not beef. Rounding >yet their industry has a fraction of the carbon and methane impact as American dairy and cattle rearing [0] I did a cursory search in your source for "carbon" and "methane" and couldn't find anything to back this claim, only vague claims about how India does "Regenerative farming" and is therefore "low methane". >because the feed used in Indian industry is crop residue instead of industrialized meat+grain mixtures. That's not scalable and only works because the country is poor and beef/dairy consumption isn't high. There's no way you can supply American level demand for beef/dairy by only using crop residue. >American Ag is hyperconsolidated into 3 processors which makes it difficult for innovations to develop, whereas an equally large country like India has 26 state run dairy cooperatives and multiple private sector players. You can easily tell an opposite story about how consolidate companies have bigger budgets for R&D and capital projects, as opposed to 26 cooperatives each trying to implement some sort of strategy.
zahlman 1y ago
Screwworms will also infect humans, with horrific and potentially fatal consequences.
FpUser 1y ago
>"Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment." We can also live in a cave, better for the environment.
- f1shy 1y ago
  Or just dissapear (which btw, no joking, is what some people propose)
spamizbad 1y ago
I guess nature is “finding a way” after all…
artursapek 1y ago
125lb take
ben_w 1y ago
While I am a vegetarian and thus am an existence proof, there's multiple different ways in which something can be "essential". Anyone going "let's stop a thing today which will messes with a non-trivial fraction of our food production in a few years' time, without preparing either that food sector nor the dietary choices of the consumers before that happens" is definitely making a high-risk strategic choice.

footlose_3815 1y ago

Twice