Amercian Beef Production

LOCAL BEEF... it's what's for dinner somewhere else
BY ROGER WILLIAMS rwilliams@floridaweekly.com

EVEN NOW, LATE IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU CAN still see them on the edges of our lives, often where a few acres lie open with some grass — beef cattle, known generically as cows whether they're heifers, steers or bulls.

Although few people now living along the Gulf coast ever lay hands on a cow, or build the fence necessary to contain one, or do the calving, raising, sorting, marking, branding, or selling of cows, we remain wedded to them.

But the labyrinthine market maze now means most of us are unlikely ever to eat beef raised nearby, or at least finished and butchered nearby. Read More

There are a couple things to discuss about this article. First, the article starts off talking about the fact that if you buy beef in the grocery store, it probably isn’t locally raised. That’s probably true unless otherwise posted at the meat counter. However, in most areas locally raised beef is available through a local producer. The other thing that was touched on was urban encroachment of agriculture land. This is a major problem for many producers all over the US. Just look at the cattle numbers in Florida and think of the amount of food that is now NOT being produced because of this issue.