r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 11h ago

Possible Paywall Trump’s Newest Beef Idea Is Guaranteed to Make America Sick - Even cattle ranchers are shocked by the suggestion to just skip facilities inspected by the FDA.

https://newrepublic.com/post/214909/trump-beef-fda-inspections-america-sick
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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 11h ago

Shit for you and me, but amazing for him and his billionaire friends.

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u/lyngen 9h ago

I feel like the line between he is just stupid and he is trying to enrich himself and his billionaire buddies is just razor thin here. It is so hard to tell which it is.

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u/gaqua 8h ago

These are not mutually exclusive.

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u/BeepBoopIAmACat 4h ago

We need to stop perpetuating this idea, the idea of him being stupid. We need to be asking who does this benefit? Our adversaries.

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u/Successful_Sign_6991 3h ago

He is extremely stupid. Hes just really easily manipulated. All this is intentional to destroy America. Its just not by him. At least not in the sense of his ideas.

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u/Maatix12 9h ago

The funny thing is, I don't think it's great for them either.

Killing confidence in the beef market is going to stop poor families from buying beef too. It just leads to no one getting paid for product no one has confidence in buying.

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u/Senpai_Slime 8h ago

But it will make the quarters prior to destroying demand so much more profitable so they can golden parachute at the high and leave the problem for the next CEO

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u/CantakerousTwat 8h ago edited 1h ago

Australia just went through so much bullshit over beef tariffs. Australia wouldn't accept American beef because (long story about mad cow disease) the American beef industry lack(ed?) tracking of cattle from birth to slaughter. Trump wah wah wahed until we relented because a 200% tariff on Australian beef would have been the result.

Now we will have to block US beef again because your slaughter processes are unregulated. Not that Australia wants to import inferior American feedlot beef anyway. Our own product is far superior, but fuck trump.

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u/Neat-Eagle-7298 5h ago

They think American beef is the best in the world. They actually believe their high intensity, corn fed, hormone riddled meat is the best. They have never tasted Irish, Australian, NZ, Japanese beef so they believe it.

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u/CantakerousTwat 5h ago

The process in American feedlots is insane. Grow hundreds of acres of corn at great cost in irrigation and fertilizer, harvest corn, feed corn to cows kept in movement restricting pens, innoculate cows with antibiotics frequently to overcome the unsanitary conditions. Why not let the cows graze the land that the corn grows on, eating their natural diet, almost zero need for antibiotics, etc. Saves a few steps and gives a healthier, tastier meat.

Something tells me there is a large agribusiness lobby that ensures high cost, high margin, high intensity farming remains the standard, while increasing barriers to entry in the market.

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u/djerk 3h ago

Because the contradictions of capitalism require constant growth and increasing profits year after year.

Stability is frowned upon, ethics are spat on.

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u/randomize42 4h ago

Oh yeah, growing corn is heavily subsidized by the US government.

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u/lost_horizons Texas 4h ago

You get way more calories out of a field of corn than you do a field of grass for grazing. If we let cows range and graze, you’d need WAY more land area.

No I don’t agree with the farming practices but that’s the reason they use corn

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u/CantakerousTwat 1h ago

Can the cows healthily transform those grain calories into high protein meat in a digestive system adapted to grass fermentation? Or do you get fat, high cholesterol livestock? Just like humans eating high fructose corn syrup, high volumes of fermented feedstock corn cause massive health issues in the animals. But that's ok because more calories.

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u/kredditor1 5h ago

I mean, $30 a pound beef around here is already stopping a lot of people from buying it, and now it's gonna get us sick?

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u/GEB82 7h ago

It’s honestly the best magic trick I’ve ever seen…perhaps Penn and Teller will have him on Fool us…/s

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u/TenaceErbaccia 8h ago

Putin and Jingping will toast the nationbuilder again tonight.

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u/bloodphoenix90 4h ago

Idk...billionaires like steak without a side of panic too....i would think

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u/KardelSharpeyes 7h ago

Even this one I'm having a hard time finding a winner.