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The amount of beef eaten per person per year in the USA is absolutely insane anyway: USA - 37kg/capita UK - 18kg/capita We're not exactly shy of roast beef o

The amount of beef eaten per person per year in the USA is absolutely insane anyway: USA - 37kg/capita UK - 18kg/capita We're not exactly shy of roast beef on this island either - the French nicknamed us "rosbifs" for a reason.

ihsw 2mo ago
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Schlagbohrer 2mo ago
According to the Economist magazine, the global problem is Chinese people eating more meat.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- walthamstow 2mo ago
  That's a deeply biased stance though, isn't it? It seems to say that USA and Brazil eating vast amounts of beef, the latter clearing the Amazon to do so, isn't a problem, it's only a problem now because of the Chinese.
  - Dylan16807 2mo ago
    The word "problem" lacks nuance here. But it's a reasonable stand-in for "the factor that shifted and is the root cause".
  - atmavatar 2mo ago
    The US and Brazil have eaten a lot of beef for a significant amount of time, so that had already been priced into the market. A sudden spike in price requires a change in the market - e.g., the Chinese suddenly starting to eat more beef, wildfires wiping out grazing land, fuel price spikes making it more expensive to ship the product around, screwworm outbreaks reducing cattle headcount, crackdown on migrant workers reducing available labor for meatpacking plants, etc.
- gruez 2mo ago
  Shouldn't per-capita consumption be factored in? Otherwise "the global problem" just boils down to whichever country is the "biggest" (by population or by GDP).
numbers_guy 2mo ago
I don't remember when I first found out, but it blew my mind that sausages in the US are typically beef. Like, what? Sausages are like quintessentially pork products. Like the whole point is that you have a lot of off cuts of a cheap meat and you make sausages. Beef sausages? Yeah, that's like a step change in wealth, haha.
- HDThoreaun 2mo ago
  Sausages are typically pork in the us. Hot dogs are often beef though
- Dylan16807 2mo ago
  I don't know well "all other pork" and retail ground beef work as proxies for sausage meat. But ground beef roughly doubled in price from 2010 to the start of 2020. Before it did that, it was very close in price to "all other pork", and before 2000 a bit cheaper.
- vel0city 2mo ago
  I wouldn't say they're "typically" all beef. When you go shopping for something like hotdogs for instance, if you just pick up a package of "hot dogs" or "weiners" they'll typically be a mixture of chicken, turkey, pork, and maybe beef. For instance: https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700000045-bun-length-wieners-hot-dogs https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700000045-bun-lengt... Some people really look down on these kinds of products though and see this as a "mystery meat" of extremely poor quality cuts. The whole phrase of "knowing how the sausage is made" comes to mind. So that's then in comparison to "franks", which are often 100% beef and are often seen as higher quality: https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700073377-jumbo-beef-franks-hot-dogs https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700073377-jumbo-bee... Are they higher quality? Eh. They're probably about the same in the end. One big thing pushing up the popularity of beef franks over pork/chicken/turkey mix is an impression of Kosher hotdogs being of very high quality during the time when meat packing was really bad, so lots of even non-Jewish people will often see Kosher dogs as superior. Which, for obvious reasons, have beef and not pork. Brats are usually pork. For example: https://johnsonville.com/products/original-bratwurst/ https://johnsonville.com/products/original-bratwurst/ This is then true for other kinds of common sausages as well. Kielbasa is usually a pork and beef combination, maybe with some chicken or turkey: https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044500341225 https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044... They even make a point to say "smoked sausage" versus "beef smoked sausage". https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044500341713 https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044... https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044500339055 https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044... Things like chicken sausages are also quite popular. https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/00764014208059 https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/007640... And one can't forget things like andouille sausage which is quite popular in a lot of Cajun dishes. https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/00764014458058 https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/007640...

ihsw 2mo ago

[dead]

Schlagbohrer 2mo ago

According to the Economist magazine, the global problem is Chinese people eating more meat.

deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
walthamstow 2mo ago
That's a deeply biased stance though, isn't it? It seems to say that USA and Brazil eating vast amounts of beef, the latter clearing the Amazon to do so, isn't a problem, it's only a problem now because of the Chinese.
- Dylan16807 2mo ago
  The word "problem" lacks nuance here. But it's a reasonable stand-in for "the factor that shifted and is the root cause".
- atmavatar 2mo ago
  The US and Brazil have eaten a lot of beef for a significant amount of time, so that had already been priced into the market. A sudden spike in price requires a change in the market - e.g., the Chinese suddenly starting to eat more beef, wildfires wiping out grazing land, fuel price spikes making it more expensive to ship the product around, screwworm outbreaks reducing cattle headcount, crackdown on migrant workers reducing available labor for meatpacking plants, etc.
gruez 2mo ago
Shouldn't per-capita consumption be factored in? Otherwise "the global problem" just boils down to whichever country is the "biggest" (by population or by GDP).

numbers_guy 2mo ago

I don't remember when I first found out, but it blew my mind that sausages in the US are typically beef. Like, what? Sausages are like quintessentially pork products. Like the whole point is that you have a lot of off cuts of a cheap meat and you make sausages. Beef sausages? Yeah, that's like a step change in wealth, haha.

HDThoreaun 2mo ago
Sausages are typically pork in the us. Hot dogs are often beef though
Dylan16807 2mo ago
I don't know well "all other pork" and retail ground beef work as proxies for sausage meat. But ground beef roughly doubled in price from 2010 to the start of 2020. Before it did that, it was very close in price to "all other pork", and before 2000 a bit cheaper.
vel0city 2mo ago
I wouldn't say they're "typically" all beef. When you go shopping for something like hotdogs for instance, if you just pick up a package of "hot dogs" or "weiners" they'll typically be a mixture of chicken, turkey, pork, and maybe beef. For instance: https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700000045-bun-length-wieners-hot-dogs https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700000045-bun-lengt... Some people really look down on these kinds of products though and see this as a "mystery meat" of extremely poor quality cuts. The whole phrase of "knowing how the sausage is made" comes to mind. So that's then in comparison to "franks", which are often 100% beef and are often seen as higher quality: https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700073377-jumbo-beef-franks-hot-dogs https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700073377-jumbo-bee... Are they higher quality? Eh. They're probably about the same in the end. One big thing pushing up the popularity of beef franks over pork/chicken/turkey mix is an impression of Kosher hotdogs being of very high quality during the time when meat packing was really bad, so lots of even non-Jewish people will often see Kosher dogs as superior. Which, for obvious reasons, have beef and not pork. Brats are usually pork. For example: https://johnsonville.com/products/original-bratwurst/ https://johnsonville.com/products/original-bratwurst/ This is then true for other kinds of common sausages as well. Kielbasa is usually a pork and beef combination, maybe with some chicken or turkey: https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044500341225 https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044... They even make a point to say "smoked sausage" versus "beef smoked sausage". https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044500341713 https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044... https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044500339055 https://www.hillshirefarm.com/products/smoked-sausages/00044... Things like chicken sausages are also quite popular. https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/00764014208059 https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/007640... And one can't forget things like andouille sausage which is quite popular in a lot of Cajun dishes. https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/00764014458058 https://www.aidells.com/products/lunch-dinner-sausage/007640...