Wheres The Beef
 

Talked to a friend who is in the Grocery Biz in So CA, he had gotten some information from one of the meat buyers for the chain. My friend said according to the meat buyer that the prices of beef are going to sky rocket this summer. The reason is who has the beef.....CHINA is buying up all the beef in the USA...

This was reported on Varney last week

Hot dogs too?

Good thing I only eat bird. And cereal. I bet I'm the only one here with 29 boxes of the crap in the pantry.

You mentioned that thing about only eating cereal in another thread... but now I have to ask, what's up with only eating cereal? Simplicity?

I just made pork steaks for mom's day. Oh wait, for the non-St. Louisans, pork shoulder cut into steaks.

Good thing you buy most of our beef. Ours is good stuff as our cattle are grass fed and run loose in the fields - no cage farming in New Zealand.

The best steaks I've eaten were in Zimbabwe. Their cattle eat scrub and wild grasses and it sure comes through in the taste.

The Chinese have been secretly, and not so secretly, buying large farms here in NZ. Most of their interest has been in dairying. I've heard they are buying huge areas of land in Namibia and maybe Angola.

Why are they doing this? It always worries me when foreign companies buy up local farm land or valuable resources.

Am I being paranoid?

Eat more cat.

Yep, beef is up and will continue through at least memorial day. This happens yearly but the prices this year are higher than normal. We had a hard winter so farmers were forced to reduce the number of cattle they fed. Couple that with reduced carcas weight and increased demand from China and we get higher prices. Same thing happened with pork this spring. Bacon went through the roof.
Actually, all protiens are up..Chicken and dairy are also crazy.
Try to buy shrimp right now. The gulf spill has caused a panic situation in the market and even the Asian, farm raised shrimp are through the roof if available at all.
Restaurants are having to raise prices and consumers are feeling the squeeze. It is tough for restaurants to make it these days and you need to be wary of places that are offering really cheap deals..like the burger joints. That crap they pass off as hamburger is total crap...old dairy cattle loaded with fat and salt.

I'm safe. These are CAB ribeye roasts bought at $4.97 per lb on April 7, 2010.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1273491348.jpg

What grade Ribeye?

If bone in, select..currently going for around $6. Bone out choice is around $7. Strips and ground are really up right now. I still have restaurants that are looking for sub $2 ground beef 81/19...dream on if it's worth serving. Again, be very weary of cheap beef right now.

Hey Matt, how long are you going to age them? I personally like it around 45 days. Really tastes great at that mark...like a steak should. Anything less than 28 days is just too "green" for a great piece of beef. The really awsome steak houses even go up to 60 days..wet and dry aged. When it is dry aged, it is really strong...yummmmmy.

They do it to make money. The Dutch have been building mega-dairies in the midwest for ten years or so. Freaks out people who are used to a farm having maybe 50 milking cows what are treated like sensate beings when a mega-dairy moves in with 1000 of them and treats them like machines. Sounds like the Chinese are doing it now.

I guess it's back to solyent green.

I suspect they are looking for somewhere to put their money and know that the future #1 commodity will be good quality food.

My GF who always thhinks worst senario is that the Chinese will have various "food stations" around the world where the food goes directly to the Chinese by-passing the local meatworks, processing, shipping and even taxes. It's Chinese milk, beef and lamb. They can do what they want with it.

china has very little farm-able land. they need to buy up land, to survive.

They are buying up land and farms to feed their own people...basically the GF is on the right track...

The Chinese have no problem with complying with local ordinaces..but a COW will be hust like sending a Fed Exed package to China...no sales taxes collected as nothing is sold in the USA.

My guess is that they would process the cow here...and then ship..

TABS. so the ranchers. are they loving this? for years, the beef industry (and dairy, especially dairy) have been suffering. this has to help right?

i look like KRAP in a cowboy hat..i'm sure the look wont work for the other 3 billion chinese guys either.:)