Brown beef in skillet. Drain. Add rice, water, onion and salt. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Stir in rest of ingredients and heat until cream cheese is melted. Serve with lots of cheese sprinkled over top.
This recipe is requested when there’s fresh homemade bread on hand.
My husband is a welder. I grew up on a farm and was a farm girl to the core. I’ve been very thankful that we have enough acreage to raise our own meat, eggs, fruit and produce. We love life in the country.
Recipe by Mrs. Nevin (Wilma) Champ, Hegins, Pennsylvania
One of my favorite, most festive dishes we prepare on the grill is kabobs, and in this case, beef kabobs. Lots of recipes call for the beef to marinate overnight, but this recipe allows the sauce to be added after everything is cooked. I prepared these kabobs for Father’s Day and they were awesome. The cut of beef I used was a 3.6 lb. tri-tip. The tri-tip is hard to find here in the Midwest, but specifically it is a triangular cut of beef taken from the sirloin, which is the area towards the back of the cow just above the flank and below the tenderloin. It is well marbled, beefy and delicious. For veggies we used small red potatoes, red, yellow and orange peppers, zucchini and mushrooms. We also cubed up some fresh pineapple. We made a bunch of white rice to be served with this. Let’s get started.
Tri-tip chimichurri beef kabobs
Ingredients
3.5 lbs of tri-tip beef, cubed
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp dried oregano
3 to 4 cloves of garlic – chopped fine
1 to 2 tsp of fresh cracked black pepper
Juice of 1 lime
First, combine everything other than the beef, veggies and pineapple and whisk together to create the sauce.
Secondly, arrange the cubed beef on wooden skewers which have been soaked in water for an hour or so. The cubes were touching each other but not squished together. If they are squished together they don’t cook right. Also, a pet peeve of mine is seeing the kabobs in the store meat cases with veggies, fruit and meat on the same skewer. That is flawed grilling as these items do not cook at the same pace. Nor is the finishing temperature the same. I boiled the potatoes until fork tender and then set them on a cookie sheet covered in foil. The remaining veggies and pineapple were assembled on skewers. I sprinkled with salt and pepper and placed the meat skewers in the pellet smoker initially at 200 degrees, and smoked them for one hour or so. I then brushed the veggies with olive oil and applied salt and pepper to them as well. I placed the vegetable and pineapple skewers in the smoker and increased the temperature to 375 degrees. I turned the vegetables and meat a couple of times and removed everything when the center of the meat reached 140 degrees. Now, if you have been paying attention you will notice those potatoes are still sitting on the cookie sheet. I sprayed those with olive oil and then broiled them in the oven for ten minutes or so until the skin crisped up a little.
In a large and shallow bowl, take the meat, veggies and pineapple off of the skewers. Now add the crispy potatoes. Lastly, drizzle the chimichurri sauce all over the meat and veggies and mix. Serve immediately with the white rice. This quantity of meat served 10 people. Only you can determine how much veggies and pineapple you need to grill. Enjoy!
A recent investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency found that some Colombian supermarkets may be selling beef from cattle raised in Chiribiquete National Park.
There are large gaps in the traceability of the beef produced in Colombia.
The Colombian Agricultural Institute is responsible for vaccinating all 28 million head of cattle in Colombia and has important information that could help authorities design effective strategies to prevent cattle ranching in natural protected areas.
Behind some of the beef sold in Colombian supermarkets is a story of deforestation in protected areas and illegal armed groups who benefit from cattle ranching.
The Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) is in charge of vaccinating all 28 million head of cattle in Colombia, whether they live in protected or non-protected areas. The ICA has records of the exact locations and names of ranches, villages and cattle owners, the number of cattle owned by each farmer, and the origin and destination of these cattle. This information may be useful in reducing Colombia’s deforestation, illegal cattle ranching, and land grabbing.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has documented the links between the deforestation of protected ecosystems, cattle ranching, and the supply chain behind the beef sold in Colombia.
The last link in the chain
The EIA says that a direct supplier of Grupo Éxito and Colsubsidio, two Colombian supermarket companies, purchases between 100 and 300 head of cattle per month from a farm in Chiribiquete National Park, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2018.
According to the EIA, the direct supplier of supermarket companies Grupo Éxito and Colsubsidio has a sales capacity of about 2,000 head of cattle per month. Image courtesy of the EIA.
This direct supplier has a relationship with an indirect supplier who, in turn, has a business partner who is responsible for fattening the cattle. The cattle are fattened on an 800-hectare (nearly 2,000-acre) farm in the northern part of Chiribiquete National Park, which is Colombia’s largest national park.
The EIA confirmed that 400 hectares (nearly 1,000 acres) of land, or half of the farm area, was deforested and converted into pasture for the cattle in 2019. According to the EIA, as of September 2020, the owner of the farm has 600 head of cattle and plans to deforest the rest of the land for the same purpose.
Although the owner acknowledges that his farm is within a protected area, he said that Colombia’s national parks administration does “sometimes bother you to not deforest anymore, but they hardly ever do.” Those who really exercise control over the land in the area are the illegal armed groups, according to the owner of the farm. These groups even charge him a “tax” of $2.79 per head of cattle that he owns.
The farm on which the cattle are fattened is located in the northern area of Chiribiquete National Park. The owner claims that he pays the illegal armed groups in the area a “tax” of $2.79 per head of cattle. Image courtesy of the EIA.
Although the owner of the farm did not name anyone specifically, the Colombian army says that “an armed organized group from the extinct FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia]” operates in the area and has about 1,500 active members.
The beef value chain in Colombia is composed of four parts: production, commercialization, transformation, and consumption. The challenge is that “the market cannot differentiate between livestock associated with deforestation, either through [direct deforestation] activity or through land grabbing,” according to a study by the National Wildlife Federation and the University of Wisconsin.
To corroborate the link between this direct supplier and the two supermarket companies, the EIA said that it contacted and visited the slaughterhouse that processes some of the beef for the two companies.
“Given that in Colombia there is no traceability system for livestock that allows the consumer or buyer to know the true origin of the meat, this involuntarily supports the destruction of protected forests and extortion by armed groups and paramilitary organizations responsible for multiple human rights violations in Colombia,” the EIA said.
The challenge of traceability
In May 2019, Grupo Éxito, along with 36 other entities, signed a voluntary agreement in which they pledged to “eliminate deforestation, promote restoration, and thus reduce the carbon footprint of the beef value chain.” In other words, the goal is to guarantee to the final consumer that the beef they purchase in Colombian supermarkets comes from “cattle that — during all its production phases (breeding, raising, and fattening) — have taken place in areas of Colombia that have not had deforestation since January 1, 2011.” According to the document, these policies will apply to direct, indirect, and intermediary suppliers.
According to the ICA, none of the 71 villages partially or completely located in Chiribiquete National Park have reported the vaccination of animals against foot-and-mouth disease and bovine brucellosis. There are no records of cattle in those areas. Image courtesy of the EIA.
Javier Ortiz, director of the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA), said most of Colombia’s mechanisms for tracing and monitoring livestock are within the ICA and the Colombian Federation of Cattle Ranchers (Fedegan).
Ortiz told Mongabay Latam that the Colombian government has “such a solid monitoring system — so much so that we can have daily deforestation alerts — yet there is not sufficient action.” He said that although he does not know why this is, he believes the solution lies with the government, not private companies or civil society.
In the first phase of the Artemis Campaign, Colombian security forces recovered 120 hectares (about 300 acres) of forests, captured 10 people, and seized vehicles, weapons, and machinery. Image courtesy of Efraín Herrera/Presidency of Colombia.
Although several organizations say the ICA is extremely protective of its information, Mongabay Latam formally requested it and received relevant documents within 15 days.
In the three most deforested departments in the country — Caquetá, Guaviare and Meta — there are almost 5 million head of cattle. The ICA found that tens of thousands of them live inside or very close to protected areas.
The ICA’s director of animal health, Andrés Osejos, told Mongabay Latam that the ICA has been sharing information on the number of cattle in several municipalities with the Attorney General’s Office and the Ministry of Defense. “We have been turning in the little [information] we have to counteract this phenomenon,” Osejos said.
Osejos added that the role of the ICA is not to combat deforestation; rather, it is to vaccinate animals to avoid putting public health and the economy at risk.
The Artemis Campaign aims to fight deforestation in all of Colombia’s natural parks to protect biodiversity. Image courtesy of Efraín Herrera/Presidency of Colombia.Map of deforestation between 2016 and 2020 in Sierra de la Macarena National Park and Chiribiquete National Park. Image courtesy of the EIA.
Mongabay Latam asked Osejos whether the ICA knows exactly who is deforesting land outside of the agricultural frontier. “As you say it, it sounds like ‘you know and don’t do anything,’ but what we have is a health program, I repeat. When the vaccinator goes to a department, that person does not know with certainty whether that place is a natural park or not. That is learned later, upon seeing satellite images, maps, and other information,” Osejos said.
When Mongabay Latam asked Osejos whether the ICA has considered that this information may be relevant to help stop deforestation, he said the agency has very little time to work on the issue of deforestation because of its day-to-day work. However, Osejos said that during work meetings, the ICA does provide the information on deforestation that it has. He added that government entities can also request this information.
On the week of Jan. 25, 2021, Global Forest Watch issued 144,847 deforestation alerts in two areas that include sections in and around Chiribiquete National Park. Image courtesy of Global Forest Watch.
Deforestation and military operations
Chiribiquete National Park spans 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) and is one of the oldest archaeological sites in the Amazon Basin; it contains ancient rock art on its sheer stone walls, earning it the nickname “the Sistine Chapel of the Amazon.” Scientists have found evidence that this dense rainforest has been inhabited for at least 12,600 years. Not only is Chiribiquete National Park a strategic site for ecological connectivity with the Andes, but it is also a key to understanding the history of human settlement in South America.
None of this has been sufficient to stop the advancement of chainsaws, highways and cattle. The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) has recorded 5,315 hectares (13,134 acres) of deforestation in Chiribiquete National Park since 2000. About 41% of this forest loss occurred in 2018 alone.
About 63% of the deforestation in Colombia between 2000 and 2018 occurred in just five departments: Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare, Antioquia and Putumayo. Image courtesy of the National Planning Department (DNP) of Colombia.
Additionally, a recent report from the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) warned that Chiribiquete National Park lost more than 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres) between September 2020 and February 2021. “Much of this deforestation appears to be associated with the conversion of primary forest to illegal cattle pasture,” the report says.
Another report, the “National Policy for Deforestation Control and Sustainable Management of Forests” from the National Economic and Social Policy Council, says cattle ranching is responsible for 50% of the total amount of newly used land in Colombia between 2005 and 2012.
According to IDEAM, 2,500 hectares (nearly 6,200 acres) were deforested in Chiribiquete National Park during 2020 and so far in 2021. Image courtesy of IDEAM.
The report also says that conservation strategies have not succeeded in reducing settlement or the development of prohibited activities because of “the low coordination between national guidelines and local realities in terms of environmental land use planning, informality in land occupation, and agricultural production that does not take the aptitude of the soil into account, causing environmental harm and social inequity.”
According to the Colombian military, nine operations against deforestation have occurred between April 2019 and February 2021 as part of the Artemis Campaign (Campaña Artemisa). Four of these operations took place in Chiribiquete National Park, leading to the recovery of more than 5,800 hectares (14,330 acres).
There are currently 22,300 members of the security forces (including from the army, navy and police) dedicated to the “protection of water, biodiversity and the environment” throughout Colombia. The military says a total of 12,358 hectares (30,537 acres) of land in Colombia’s natural parks have been recovered. Additionally, tens of thousands of pounds of illegal items have been seized, including timber, fish, and raw materials used in the processing of narcotics.
Despite this, the EIA discovered the falsification of livestock transportation records, the sale of timber from protected areas, and a lack of coordination between government entities. The EIA recommends “a structural reform to care for many of these problems, starting with declaring the principles of transparency and livestock traceability to be in the public interest.”
Banner image: According to the EIA, the direct supplier of supermarket companies Grupo Éxito and Colsubsidio has a sales capacity of about 2,000 head of cattle per month. Image courtesy of the EIA.
This article was first reported by Mongabay’s Latam team and published here on our Latam site on May 27, 2021.
(NAFB) – Chinese officials announced Monday a plan to buy pork for state reserves to support prices, which rebounded sharply after reaching a two-year low recently.
Hog prices in China, the world’s top pork-producing nation, plunged 65 percent in the first half of 2021 as disease outbreaks triggered panic selling, according to Reuters. China reports average weekly prices entered an “excessive decline” last week. However, China does not disclose how much pork is in state reserves or how much new purchases will total.
A Rabobank analyst told Reuters, “Since the frozen pork inventory is probably already high due to strong imports in the previous months, I don’t think they’ll buy too much.”
China last made pork purchases in February and March of 2019, totaling 200,000 metric tons. So far in 2021, China has imported nearly two million metric tons of pork, up 13.7 percent. The purchases followed a record 4.4 million metric tons last year.
Thanks to the Beef Checkoff Program and the National Pork Board, pairings are allowing both U.S. beef and pork to capitalize on a ‘Buy Local’ trend in Mexico. U.S. Meat Export Federation’s Joe Schuele has the story.
Buy Local Campaign Helping U.S. Beef and Pork Sales in Mexico
The fifth annual Beef Feedlot Short Course, organized and hosted by the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University, is set for Aug. 3 to 5 at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center in Ames.
Erika Lundy-Woolfolk, beef specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, says the goal of the event is to optimize participant learning through exposure to new technology, research and best management practices.
"From our initial planning for the first event in 2017, we've focused on providing content in a small-group setting with a mix of hands-on and classroom instruction," she says. "The short course is designed for feedlot managers, employees and consultants, and past attendees have appreciated that focus."
Content-specific portions of the short course will be held at the Iowa State Beef Nutrition Farm near Ames and Couser Cattle Co. in Nevada, Iowa.
The program runs from 12:30 p.m. Aug. 3 through noon Aug. 5. For questions on the content, contact Lundy-Woolfolk at [email protected] or Dan Loy, Iowa Beef Center director, at [email protected].
What’s on the agenda
The topics include:
• bunk management and the basics of starting cattle on feed
• feed-mixing demonstration and evaluation
• feedlot nutrition
• managing and identifying cattle health issues in the feedlot
• facility design and cattle handling
• data management
Who is speaking
The presenters include:
• Bill Couser, Couser Cattle Co., Nevada, Iowa
• Garland Dahlke, associate scientist, Iowa Beef Center, Iowa State University
• Grant Dewell, beef veterinarian, ISU Extension and Outreach
• Terry Engelken, associate professor, Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, ISU
• Lee Schulz, Extension livestock economist and associate professor, economics, ISU
• Dan Thomson, professor and animal science department chair, ISU
The registration fee, $350 per person, includes program materials and meals listed on the agenda. The registration deadline is midnight July 27, or when the course limit of 30 is reached. All registrations must be made online.
See the short course website for registration information, requirements and links at Beef Feedlot Short Course.
Participants are responsible for making their own lodging arrangements, if needed. A block of rooms is available at Comfort Inn & Suites ISU, 603 S 16th St., Ames. Book by phone at 515-663-9555 or book online.
Source: ISU Extension and Outreach, which is responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and its subsidiaries aren't responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.
Italy will soon introduce new legislation on the national labelling of pork products. It is related to levels of animal welfare and sow breeding conditions.
One bill has been approved into law with implementation to begin in July 2021. The new regulations stem from pressure in Italy to make information about pork products and other meat products clearer. Some in Italy feel that current product labels can be misleading for consumers with regard to breeding methods (such as the use of farrowing crates) and other aspects of animal welfare.
Various traditional pork products for sale at a shop in Rome, Italy. They may soon carry a label informing customers about the product’s background. - Photo: Shutterstock
Harmonising pork labelling systems
In July 2020, the Italian parliament approved Law #77. Maurizio Gallo, director of the Italian pig industry organisation Associazione Nazionale Allevatori Suini (ANAS), explained that with this law, the ‘Sistema Qualità Nazionale Benessere Animale (SQNBA)’ comes into effect. The SQNBA harmonises several voluntary pork product labelling systems relating to the welfare, biosecurity and use of antibiotics in Italian livestock. “In the next months, a ministerial decree will be issued for ruling on the certification methods,” Gallo said.
“It is expected [to be] a scheme for every species and category (for instance in the pigs: farrowing and fattening stage, outdoor and indoor) and the ‘ClassyFarm’ system of the health ministry will have to be used. Then, all who are interested to label pork in Italy for welfare [that is, making claims in the use of production practices that relate to animal welfare] will have to comply at least to the minimum standard established by SQNBA.”
Second bill on pork product labelling
Against the background of this initiative, another bill (no. 2403) was presented in 2020 by animal rights groups Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) Italia and Legambiente, and was supported by a representative from Italy’s Free and Equal party (LeU) and integrated pork producer Fumagalli Industria Alimentari. The latter has focused on producing cured pork products from pigs raised to high welfare standards for years.
In April 2021, a similar labelling system was proposed for dairy products in Italy based on type of milk production and related animal management practices. In total 5 production levels were proposed, ranging from organic to intensive.
‘Labelling scheme too superficial’
CIWF Italia director Annamaria Pisapia is critical of Law 77. In her view, the labelling scheme is too superficial, with only one indoor production category and a free-range production category. She therefore argued that the law penalises the farmers who are already farming with better indoors standards, as they will be ‘put in the same pot’ with farmers that do basically intensive production. That also means, she said, that farmers who have already stopped tail docking would be categorised with those that still use the practice. In addition, CIWF Italia would like the law to address the use of sow gestation crates.
CHICAGO, June 28 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures rose 3% on Monday, supported by rising demand as China moved to buy pork for its reserves to shore up the domestic market, traders said.
China's state planner said on Monday that central and local governments will start buying pork for state reserves to support prices, even after prices rebounded sharply from a two-year low last week.
CME August hog futures, the most actively traded contract, ended up 3 cents at 102.775 cents.
The wholesale U.S. pork carcass cutout price rose $5.09 to $115.13, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. <PRK-MAN-CARCS>
Profit margins at pork processors weakened. Packers were facing a loss of $33.55 per head, compared with a loss of $25.19 on Friday, according to Denver-based livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com LLC.
August live cattle futures settled 1.2 cent lower at 121.6 cents per pound. CME August feeder cattle ended down 3.2 cents at 156.35 cents per pound.
The USDA quoted the choice boxed beef cutout value at $297.43 per cwt, down $7.13 from Thursday, and the select cutout dropped $2.22 at $273.96 per cwt. <BEEF-US-CH> <BEEF-US-SE> (Reporting by Mark Weinraub; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Last year, Europe’s biggest meat processor and the world’s largest pork exporter Danish Crown launched what it described as its “biggest advertising campaign ever.” On TV, newspaper ads, the radio, and billboards across Denmark, the company announced that “pigs are more climate-friendly than you think” and put pink-green stickers on its pork products, referring to pigs slaughtered by the company as “climate-controlled.”
Faced with immediate criticism from consumer organizations accusing Danish Crown of greenwashing, it stopped promoting the first slogan. The company, however, is still using the “climate-controlled pig” claim even after three complaints, including one from Greenpeace Denmark, reported the campaign to the Danish consumer protection agency.
Following Danish Crown’s refusal to withdraw the slogan, three Denmark-based non-profit organizations, the Vegetarian Society of Denmark, the Climate Movement, and the green student movement Den Grønne Studenterbevægelse, have jointly filed Denmark’s first climate lawsuit against the pork producer.
Greenwashing accusations
Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, general secretary at the Vegetarian Society of Denmark, regards the term “climate-friendly” as misleading because pork would still be more climate-damaging than plant-based products even if the meat industry managed to cut emissions significantly. “When consumers believe that ‘Oh, there is such a thing as more ‘climate-friendly meat!’ then it becomes more difficult to change consumer patterns,” Dragsdahl says. “It’s muddying the whole debate.”
In response to the looming lawsuit, Danish Crown’s Communications Director Astrid Gade Nielsen stated that the company does not plan to withdraw the campaign. “We believe that the program that forms the basis of the ‘climate-controlled pig’ campaign is reasonably robust,” Nielsen said, “as all pig shareholders in Danish Crown have committed to reducing their CO2 footprint by 50 percent by 2030.”
Kristine Clement, campaign lead of agriculture and forest at Greenpeace Denmark, describes Danish Crown’s campaigns as “a clear case of greenwashing” and urges the company to withdraw them immediately. “Danish Crown is fooling the public and delaying the necessary transition of how we produce and consume food to protect their own market,” Clement says. “Instead, we need to reduce Denmark’s record production of meat and scale up on plant-based food to meet our national climate targets and global commitments.”
Danish Crown’s emissions
Livestock production in Denmark is a striking example of large-scale meat producers impeding national climate targets. According to a new study by New York University researchers, Danish Crown’s greenhouse gas emissions are currently equivalent to 29 percent of Denmark’s carbon footprint and will be responsible for 42 percent of its emissions allowed under the Paris Agreement by 2030 if current meat consumption trends continue.
On its website, Danish Crown claims that it’s striving to become “the world’s most sustainable and successful meat producer” by 2030 and that Danish farmers have already reduced the carbon footprint of pork sold by Danish Crown by 25 percent since 2005. This claim, however, is based on an Aarhus University study commissioned by Danish Crown that environmental experts have criticized for not including emissions caused by indirect land use.
“According to the UN, indirect land use accounts for approximately 11 percent of the total climate impact globally and can account for approximately 50 percent of the climate footprint of food production,” says life cycle assessment expert Jannick Schmidt from Aalborg University. “If you omit indirect land use, you paint a false impression of a product’s total carbon emissions.”
The pork report used by Danish Crown to back its climate claim isn’t its first controversial cooperation with the University of Aarhus. In 2019, Aarhus University withdrew a study about the climate impact of beef when an investigation found that Danish Crown and Landbrug & Fødevarer, a Danish agricultural industry group, had influenced and co-written the report.
Livestock’s climate impact
Livestock production in Denmark is one of the world’s most striking examples of how large-scale meat production threatens climate targets. With 62 percent of its land used for agriculture, Denmark is one of the most cultivated countries in Europe, and according to a report by six Danish sustainability organizations, 80 percent of Denmark’s agricultural land—half of the entire country—is used to grow fodder for farmed animals.
While the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) estimate that livestock production accounts for 14.5 percent of human-caused emissions continues to prevail in discussions about livestock emissions, environmental campaigners, as well as scientists, are increasingly pointing to the carbon opportunity costs of animal agriculture. As the example of Denmark shows, industrial animal agriculture covers large areas of land that cannot be used to regrow natural vegetation that binds more carbon in the soil than agricultural land.
Creating legal precedent
According to Clement from Greenpeace, Danish Crown plans to roll out the “climate-controlled pigs” campaign in Sweden, Germany, and Poland too. But like the recent climate trial against Shell that resulted in a Dutch court ordering the oil giant to deepen its greenhouse gas emission goals, the lawsuit against Danish Crown could create a legal precedent.
Clement hopes that the legal action taken against Danish Crown will curb the company’s greenwashing activities. “If we stop this campaign in Denmark,” she says, “we can stop them from using the same misinformation campaign in other markets as well.”
In addition to reigning in Danish Crown, Dragsdahl from the Vegetarian Society of Denmark wants the lawsuit to discourage other meat companies from greenwashing campaigns. “This is spreading more and more in other countries as well, all sorts of greenwashing claims on products,” he says. “Someone has to draw a line in the sand before this gets out of hand and just becomes completely confusing for consumers.”
He regards the fact that Denmark’s first climate lawsuit involves a meat company as “very fitting.” While the Danish government has established a clear course of action for industries such as transportation and energy to reach Denmark’s 2030 climate target, Dragsdahl explains, politicians have yet to reach a deal that addresses agricultural emissions. “They keep delaying and delaying it,” he says. “It appears like agriculture, or more specifically, that animal agriculture is getting a special treatment while all other sectors have to pay the price and adjust.”
TIPTON COUNTY, Ind. — The Tipton County Pork Festival will return for its 53rd year on Sept. 9-11.
The festival is expected to have a full lineup of entertainments beginning Thursday, Sept. 9, with the annual kickoff parade that begins at 5:30 p.m.
During the event, festival-goers will be able to pig out on their favorite pork chops, pork burgers, ribs, pulled pork and bacon burgers.
There will also be a Tipton County Port Festival Pageant. The pageant committee has created a new pageant for girls in their "in-between" ages. Eligible ages for the junior miss competition is 10-12 years old.
The festival will conclude on Saturday, Sept. 11, with a grand parade at 2 p.m.
Brice Delph, the festival's vice president, said the festival committee is working with authorities to ensure the festival is safe for all people to attend.
Happy cows living in sanctuaries wander, swing their tails, form strong friendships, groom each other, enjoy intellectual stimulation, prefer salty and sweet foods, empathize with each other, and take care of herd members who are sick. The vast majority of cows in the United States, meanwhile—about 41 million cows were being raised for beef and dairy in 2019—are unable to enjoy most of these activities, especially as they only live to be about 14 to 16 months old, less than a tenth of the expected lifespan of a cow living in an animal sanctuary. But how did cattle farming become like this, and what might the future hold for beef consumption in the U.S.?
In the 20th century, meat consumption has also been heavily tied to farming innovations. Innovations in industrial agriculture changed how animals were raised for the market. For example, after World War II, farmers began using antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease among animals living too close together. Cows spend their lives in cramped and unsanitary conditions where they must often endure the pain of having their tails removed.
The resulting efficiency of the meat production system also came with a price of hazardous conditions for low-wage workers. Slaughterhouses tend to hire Black, Latino, Asian, and both undocumented and documented immigrant workers for dangerous, trauma-inducing, non-unionized work. Farmers who raise cattle that are sent to slaughter also struggle to make money from their labor.
Whether eating chickens, cows, or pigs, humans became further and further removed from the individual animals they were eating—both physically and in terms of their knowledge, writes Connie Johnston in Political Ecologies of Meat.
How Much Beef Does the Average American Eat?
The average American eats about 55 pounds of beef per year, based on 2019 USDA Food Availability data, a proxy for food consumption. Since the USDA began keeping statistics, the average amount of beef consumed per capita rose from 32 pounds per person in 1932 to 88.8 pounds in 1976 and has since steadily fallen.
Meat Consumption in the U.S. Over Time
Meat consumption in the U.S. has roughly mirrored the rise and fall of beef consumption in the last century, with a low of 76.9 pounds of red meat per person in 1935 rising to a high of 136.1 pounds in 1971. From 1971 to 2019 Americans reduced their red meat intake to about 105.2 pounds per person.
The graph below shows the per capita consumption of beef and red meat in the U.S. from 2009 to 2019, using data from the USDA.
In 2019, beef comprised more than half of all red meat consumption in the U.S.
Which U.S. State Consumes the Most Beef?
While the USDA calculates beef consumption per capita nationally, it does not hold such data by state. Among the five states that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks, Texans spent the most on beef products, and more than the average U.S. resident. Hamburger consumption in Nevada has been found to be higher than in most other states. Meanwhile, among cities with the highest consumption of meat in the U.S., Philadelphia has been ranked first.
Which Country Consumes the Most Beef?
Argentina outpaces all other countries in beef and veal consumption per person, at 36.9 kilograms (81.4 pounds) annually, compared to the U.S.’s second-place consumption rate of 26.1 kilograms (57.5 pounds).
Why Do Americans Eat So Much Beef?
The domestication of animals for meat arrived in what is now the U.S. with settler colonialism and is directly linked to the displacement and genocide of Indigenous populations, and the decimation of bison. Meat-eating in Europe had been reserved for wealthy people. Colonists brought cows, pigs, chickens, and other livestock from Europe to raise on land stolen from `Indigenous people. As it became more accessible and affordable to more and more settlers, beef became a staple of the American diet.
Since the 19th century, meat production in the U.S. has become increasingly industrialized, resulting in factory farms that produce fast-growing cows who live in crowded and restricted spaces. Cows are fed corn, soy, and grains and are given hormones that cause them to grow quickly. From those farms, slaughterers and processors turn the cows into different forms of meat which are prepared and packaged for grocery retail and food service—from ground beef to steaks: dried, frozen, canned and chilled.
Is Beef Consumption Increasing or Decreasing?
Since the late 1970s, beef consumption in the U.S. has declined, in part due to consumer concerns about the health impacts of eating too much red meat. Instead, Americans are eating the more affordable chicken.
Beef Consumption After the Pandemic
As COVID-19 spread—and killed at least 20 workers from meatpacking plants in the Spring of 2020 before ultimately causing the deaths of a further 600,000 people in the U.S.—beef consumption seems to have fallen to 13.2 billion pounds nationally, down from 13.9 billion in 2019. People also began purchasing more of their beef from the grocery store than from restaurants and other food service venues.
How Much Beef Is Wasted in the U.S.?
About one-third of food is wasted in the U.S., and meat tops the list by value. In 2010, 161.6 billion dollars’ worth of food went uneaten, of which about 30 percent was meat, poultry, and fish. Vegetables (19 percent) and dairy products (17 percent) were the other top contenders. Given the dominance of beef consumption in the meat industry, billions of pounds of beef are likely wasted in the U.S. each year.
There are many ways that beef is wasted. It can be damaged due to packaging, storage, spoilage, or may not pass food safety inspections. It can also be overstocked at stores or not be purchased because of how it looks to grocery store shoppers. At home, people may overestimate how much food they need and make too much food, or they may throw away uneaten food because of food recalls, or concerns about whether the food is expired.
With reduced farming of cows that are given large amounts of antibiotics, leading to spreading antibiotic resistance in bacteria, people might have a better chance of surviving bacterial infections. Less corn, soy, and other feed would be raised for cows, the amount of methane and carbon dioxide pollution would be reduced, and water in rivers and throughout ecosystems would be replenished. Biodiversity might also increase as a result of reduced denuding of land for cattle grazing.
Finally, there would be a significant impact on the food system. People could sink their teeth into a falafel sandwich with greater assurance that their proteins are not directly linked to slavery, compared to if they had chosen to eat a typical cheesesteak or hamburger.
What Can You Do To Help?
Give yourself a pat on the back for taking the time to inform yourself about the consumption of dairy and beef in the U.S. Here are some additional resources as you consider how you can help solve some of the ethical, social, environmental, and political problems raised in this article:
Food Empowerment Project’s Food Chain Newsletter offers an overview of the beef industry, from the life of the cow to the environmental and human costs.
Heed the perspectives of Black and Indigenous activists seeking to decolonize the food system, as written about in this article.
Are we missing something? Let us know how we can make this article better.
The Road Ahead
The story of how beef is consumed in the U.S. often omits the experiences of cows or the people who labored to raise and slaughter them. Beef has been separated from its origins by a powerful supply system, which activists are seeking to undo because of its harms to communities, animals, and the environment.
SPRINGDALE, ARK. – Tyson Foods Inc. announced its Finney County, Kan., beef plant’s water conservation efforts resulted in the facility being the first in the industry to be certified as part of the Alliance for Water Stewardship by meeting standards verified by SCS Global Services (SCS), a third-party certification company. The certification standards implemented indicate the plant’s successful achievement of water stewardship requirements that are measured by water governance, quality, sustainable balance, safety and sanitation.
By reducing its water intensity from 0.90 gallons per lb (of beef produced) to 0.85 gallons, the plant’s water efficiency improved by 4.8% from 2019 to 2020, while reducing water usage companywide by 7.7% since 2015.
Dennis Jones, complex manager at the Finney County facility, said the certification is affirmation of the company’s planned efforts to conserve natural resources.
“We are proud of our work to implement water stewardship practices in Finney County and our recent certification under the Alliance for Water Stewardship standard is a true testament to our commitment of securing the future of water at the plant and in the community,” he said. “This work is extremely important and we aim to safeguard water resources for residents through our efforts and contribute to the long-term development of the local community.”
The company developed and implemented its water stewardship program after interpreting data to identify water challenges and then evaluating the results of the applied stewardship plan in terms of water efficiency and overall usage. The campaign involved working with business and community members as well as government officials to establish water conservation goals while focusing specifically on monitoring water usage, wastewater management and minimizing water pumped from the county’s aquifer to conserve it for essential community purposes.
“Making clean water available for drinking and washing is at the forefront of our safety efforts and will continue to be a priority for all Tyson locations,” the company said.
“AWS certification distinguishes Tyson Foods as a global leader in water stewardship and demonstrates its commitment to excellence in water governance and conservation,” said Rae Mindock, SCS Global Services’ program manager of water certification.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest official data says in April 2021, the average price of a pound of lean ground beef climbed to a whopping $5.97 per pound. It's no secret that in the past year, we've seen all kinds of economic turmoil sending us into a season of inflation, when the price of everything is soaring.
If you and your family are not ready to turn vegetarian — nor are you prepared to pay a king's ransom for quality hamburger — you do have another option: Get creative. OK, maybe a little sneaky, too.
But first, let's talk turkey — I mean, ground beef. The really lean option of ground beef, 93/7, is not easy to prepare well. That's because there's not enough fat in it to turn out juicy, delicious fare. Super lean ground beef requires careful seasoning as well as careful cooking.
Let's say that you, like me, prefer organic, 90/10 lean ground beef. Yesterday I paid $5 per pound at my supermarket, on sale. Yikes! But I didn't really pay that. My effective cost is more like $3.24 per pound. How? Please don't tell a soul: I stretch it. I take the best quality ground beef and then "extend" it by at least one-third. So whatever the price in the store, I mentally reduce it by 33% to get my effective cost.
How to stretch ground beef
Sounds horrible, I know. But it's not. By mixing in something with the ground beef to make it go further, I get results that are so much better than the beef alone. I'm always doctoring, seasoning, adding this or that depending on what I'm making.
Take meatloaf, for example. I wouldn't be surprised if just the word "meatloaf" makes you respond with a resounding, "Yuck!" That's because a brick of ground beef stuck in the oven with a little salt and pepper is going to turn out dry as shoe leather, and about as tasty.
But take that same amount of ground beef and mix it with a few well-chosen ingredients, and then bake it up or put it on the grill. You are going to be amazed. Even your children are going to say it's great and ask you to do that again. And again.
Just don't be so anxious to tell your secrets. There's something about adding stuff to ground beef that grosses people out.
Rice
When browning ground beef for anything like tacos, chili or sloppy Joes, add one cup of cooked rice for every pound of meat, just after draining the grease. Your family will never know. The rice (brown or white) takes the seasoning very well so that it looks like it is all ground beef.
Potato
Add grated potato or dry potato flakes to hamburger meat for any Mexican dish like tacos or chili.
Bulgar wheat
Cook it first in water until soft according to label instructions. Then add to any recipe calling for ground beef and tomato sauce, reducing the amount of ground beef you use to accommodate the addition of the bulgur wheat. Shhh! I've been known to go 50/50 cooked bulgur to ground beef. That means 1/2 pound ground beef where the recipe calls for 1 pound.
Pureed vegetables
Roast them first, and then puree in the food processor or blender. Add one cup per pound of ground beef.
Fillers
Add 1/2 cup of precooked lentils, kasha, quinoa or beans to the raw ground beef. Now cook it just as if you would if it were all ground beef.
Stale bread, crackers
Tear up old bread or crackers into crumbs. Add an egg and spices to make meatballs and burgers.
Turkey
Ground turkey is very lean and often lacking in flavor. And it's dry. Mix 50/50 with ground beef for fabulous results.
Meatloaf
You can find my family's all-time favorite recipe for meatloaf at everydaycheapskate.com/groundbeef. This is the way your grandma made it; trust me on this. This is the recipe that made the house smell great, that went perfectly with mashed potatoes and that you knew you could eat every day of your life and never get tired of it.
This is the recipe that will make your family hope and pray there will be leftovers for tomorrow. If you follow this recipe well, the kids will never know you used bread, carrots and cheese to turn 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef into something closer to 3 pounds!
The temperature in my historically cool and temperate city, Portland Oregon, is projected to be a historic 114 degrees. Can we agree with pretty much the entire rational universe that a radical reduction in fossil fuel consumption is a paramount priority? Like, now?
Sadly, the rational universe does not include Republican elected officials.
They are outraged that Biden is tying a bipartisan infrastructure bill that only does standard roads and bridges to a larger bill that will include several aspects of the fossil fuel consumption reduction essential to the survival of the economy and ecology. They claim to be fiscally prudent.
Yeah, no. They never met a weapons system they didn’t like, and that fiscal outlay dwarfs the infrastructure outlays because the Pentagon gets more every year than the one-time infrastructure bill.
Pentagon consumes more fossil fuel than any other entity on Earth. They consume more taxpayer dollars than any country ever has, much more than all US adversaries combined (plus a few allies).
Look at just one blip in that ocean of your money grabbed by the Dept of Defense, here just one of the many contracts announced every day, this one from June 25:
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a Lockheed Martin Co., Stratford, Connecticut, is awarded a $735,903,127 modification (P00004) to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract N00019-20-C-0047. This modification increases the scope for nine Lot Five low rate initial production CH-53K heavy-lift aircraft and associated aircraft, programmatic and logistical support. Work will be performed in Stratford, Connecticut (36.71%); Wichita, Kansas (9.86%); Salt Lake City, Utah (6.19%); St. Louis, Missouri (4.30%); Bridgeport, West Virginia (3.19%); Redmond, Washington (1.91%); Quebec, Canada (1.66%); Kent, Washington (1.63%); Rochester, United Kingdom (1.59%); Cudahy, Wisconsin (1.39%); Fort Walton Beach, Florida (1.19%); Jupiter, Florida (1.01%); various locations within the continental U.S. (CONUS) (27.37%); and various locations outside CONUS (2%), and is expected to be completed in December 2024.
You see how they carefully tell you where portions of the work will be done, which of course translates into pork in the barrels of politicians representing those areas. Other weapons systems award to other congressional districts like the perfect bribery system. As Reagan’s ultimately disillusioned head of his Office of Management and Budget David Stockman wrote about this way back then, “The hogs are really feeding now.”
This three-quarters of a $billion to Lockheed Martin is just an add-on to a much larger contract. So much for “firm-fixed-price.” So much for the climate. You drive a vehicle that gets a certain number of miles per gallon, mpg. That is reversed for military vehicles, to gallons per mile, gpm. Sikorsky “King Stallion” helicopters burn up nearly six gallons of fuel to go one nautical mile.
Thanks, Congress. Thanks, Senators. With temperatures like 114 in Portland and 120 degrees in Los Angeles, why change anything? The climate chaos freight train is accelerating even as the track is about to warp and twist from the heat. Your grandchildren are already cursing you, Congressmembers, why try to fix anything now?
BRIDGEWATER — The Bridgewater Volunteer Fire Department is having a “Taste of the Fair.” On July 10 from 3-7 p.m., there will be a drive-thru smoked pork dinner at the Bridgewater Fairgrounds,100 Main Street South.
Cost is $15 for per dinner - cash/debit and credit cards accepted. This includes a mound-full of tender 16-hour smoked pork, a side of homemade coleslaw, macaroni and cheese and a bottle of water.
There will be a boot drive, where fireman are standing in gear holding a fire boot for the public to drop in donations.
The volunteer firefighters will be directing visitors upon entry to the fairgrounds. Visitors may stay in their car while their pay, and they will have the food packaged.
Pork skins or rinds, original or flavored, a couple of handfuls, crushed almost to powder
1 medium to large onion, cut into half-inch sized rings
1-2 eggs, depending on your onion rings
1 tablespoon water
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Beat the eggs and water together in a bowl, and set aside.
Set up a bowl with the egg wash mixture and the pork skins mixture. Dip each onion ring into the egg wash and then coat with the crushed pork skins. Bake on a wire rack (or air fryer can be used here, see your fryer for times). Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with a ranch dip or sugar free ketchup.
Easy “Low Carb” Mozzarella Cheese Sticks
6 mozzarella (or other type) of cheese string sticks
½ cup crushed pork skins
1 teaspoon dry ranch dressing
1 egg
Salsa or marinara for dipping
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the cheese sticks in half, place them in an airtight container and freeze until solid.
In a small bowl mix together the crushed pork skins and ranch mix. In a separate bowl, beat the egg.
Dip the cheese stick in the egg, then coat in the pork skin mix. Place on a baking sheet, that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray.
Bake for 3 minutes. Flip and cook another 3 minutes, or until the cheese begins to melt, it seemed to takea tad less time than recommended so watch these closely.
Allow to cool, and serve.
Make ahead tip, I made up a bunch of these and put them in the freezer, that way I could pull them out when I needed them, and they seemed to work great!
Pork Skin Pizza Crust
2 cups shredded cheese, you may choose your favorite, I used mozzarella
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup ground pork skins
3 eggs
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt the shredded cheese in the microwave, close to a minute. (the cheese melts best if you hand shred instead of purchasing pre-shred).
Combine the melted cream cheese, eggs, pork skin crumbs, and garlic powder using a hand mixer, add the melted cheese slowly and blend as smooth as possible.
Prepare a baking sheet by coating with non-stick spray, and transfer the mixture to the pan, and smooth into a circle or rectangle.
Bake in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes, rotating halfway through the cooking time.
Add toppings, and depending on the toppings (I like to add a lot of vegetables), some vegetables take a bit longer. Return to the oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and everything is cooked. Enjoy!
Crispy Parmesan Chicken
2-4 chicken breasts or a similar amount of chicken tenders
2 cloves minced garlic
½ stick butter
1/3 cup sour cream
½ cup (or more depending on amount of chicken) shredded Parmesan cheese
½ cup pork skins, crushed
Sauté fresh garlic in butter, and melt. Once cooled, stir in sour cream.
Roll chicken breast in sour cream mixture. Roll in fresh Parmesan cheese, and pork skin mixture.
Bake at 325 for 30 minutes (or more depending on # of breasts)
Faux Fried Green Tomatoes
3 green tomatoes (now is the time to find them)
¾ to 1 cup of crushed pork skins, finely ground
¾ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon garlic powder
½ tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheet with foil and grease with oil, or use non-stick to coat.
Slice tomatoes, set aside, and mix together dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Dip the tomato slices in the mayonnaise, then in the pork skin mix.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, flip once, do this very carefully. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.
Squash Casserole (Low Carb) with Pork Skin Topping
3 yellow squash, sliced in thin rounds
1 package sliced fresh mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
Salt and pepper as desired
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup crushed pork skins
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add vegetables and cook until tender but still firm.
Combine cream cheese, sour cream, and garlic powder. Mix well. Stir in the cooked vegetables and stir to combine.
Transfer the mixture to the casserole dish and spread evenly. Top the casserole with shredded cheese and crushed pork skins. Bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
