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Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

usda.gov

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Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#121

Post by alephnerd »

ModernMech wrote: post #118
alephnerd wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. To quote The Bullvine [0] (Axios for the cattle and dairy industry): "Here’s another force reshaping the industry that has nothing to do with immigration: processor consolidation. According to industry analysis, just three major cooperatives—Dairy Farmers of America, Land O’Lakes, and California Dairies—now handle over 80% of the nation’s milk marketing. These processors need massive, consistent volumes. New pro…

Market failures due to oligarchic control is the natural end state of capitalism. Everything is going as intended, the point of the system is to produce oligarchs, not efficient markets.

Not necessarily.

It is mainstream economic and political opinion to regulate in some manner to reduce market consolidation since the 1940s with the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index.

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#122

Post by renewiltord »

Aurornis wrote: post #101
Bender wrote: post #94

Whether your meat comes form South America or the US or the EU, always wear gloves when handling raw meats and don't touch your face. There are thousands of types of dangerous larvae that can infect via the eyes rubbing the eyes or the nose picking ones nose when handling raw meats and vegetables. Cutting meat slices thinner and cooking them well kills larvae. Marinating meats with something that contains acetic acid…

> I know I will get beat up for going against the agenda but I am that guy. Food safety with raw meets isn’t really going against the agenda.

What's with everyone saying they know some secret that everyone else is trying to suppress?

Is it just that we all spend time in our bubble and take that to other groups?

I don't even know what agenda he's going against by saying one should be careful around raw meat. Who's on the other side of this?

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#123

Post by tomxor »

progbits wrote: post #41
kriops wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Implied) invalid generalization, or confirmation bias. This is a good reason to not eat that particular meat. In general, however, meat is an S-tier source of nutrition, vitamins, and minerals.

How can something which is horribly inefficient for environment (water use, land use, greenhouse emissions from fertilizer) possibly be S tier?

Meat especially grass fed beef, is not just protein, it's an incredibly dense source of nutritients. You have to eat far higher quantities and ranges of plant based alternatives to acquire the same nutritional value, and they are usually less bioavailable. So from the perspective of the person consuming it, it's very efficient source of nutrients, and also the most satiating food you can eat, so you won't feel the urge to overeat.

Abstractly, using land for crops is around an order of magnitude more efficient when considering only calories per unit area, but when considering the total system i.e the humans consuming it, there's an argument to be had that more livestock could be more efficient when considering all the side effects of a huge population of malnourished humans overeating refined hyper-paletable carbs.

For either side of this argument, the real issue is industrial agriculture producing both crops and livestock in unsustainable and nutritionally devoid ways, that are incredibly bad for the environment and humans consuming it.

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#124

Post by renewiltord »

Pxtl wrote: post #79

This was literally one of the first North American disasters I saw predicted as falling out of the Doge cuts.

The barrier failure happened last year due to covid related supply chain issues that eventually reached the end of the bullwhip and was announced then.

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#125

Post by mkoubaa »

cogman10 wrote: post #20

USAID was in charge of the program which monitored screwworm spread in central and south america. The way you combat screwworm is by releasing sterile male flies in screwworm outbreak areas.

I don't see why a trade group of affected industries can't collectively fund this

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#126

Post by luketaylor »

grej wrote: post #26

The US successfully eradicated screwworms here in 1966 with a brilliant integrated sterile insect technique - I think the very first use of it (and had previously funded helping other countries control it also). But if we had another outbreak spread, I doubt there's any shred of competence left in this current gutted federal government to do anything like that again. Maybe they can have the new ICE folks try to depor…

The current plan was announced here a few weeks ago: https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/...

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#127

Post by JKCalhoun »

neutered_knot wrote: post #15

A story from 2020 about how effective the US funded anti-screwworm program used to be. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-ea... Archive link: https://archive.ph/3sD9d

Great (gross) video from the Department of Energy (1960) on how the screwworm was defeated: https://youtu.be/QFoOnS6CWSI

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#129

Post by tptacek »

mc32 wrote: post #99
tptacek wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole reason this is newsworthy is that the system we had prior to eradication was not good.

Yes, obviously; but it’s not the end of the cattle industry as some make it out to be. To clarify: it was never eradicated. It’s been actively managed and kept at bay. Now it’s punching through some holes.

Because we stopped doing the thing that works. Your earlier point, that we can just as easily return to herd management strategies, was wrong.

Re: Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

#130

Post by rcpt »

alephnerd wrote: post #113
gruez wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this supported by the data? During the pandemic people were also blaming "monopolization" or "consolidation" for the rise in grocery prices, but in reality the margins of publicly traded supermarket companies went up by a percentage point or two.

Yep. To quote The Bullvine [0] (Axios for the cattle and dairy industry): "Here’s another force reshaping the industry that has nothing to do with immigration: processor consolidation. According to industry analysis, just three major cooperatives—Dairy Farmers of America, Land O’Lakes, and California Dairies—now handle over 80% of the nation’s milk marketing. These processors need massive, consistent volumes. New pro…

Lina Khan was in power for years and didn't do anything about this.

Closest thing was a case where she blocked Sanderson Farms from being acquired but that was poultry.

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