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Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread

usda.gov

131–140 of 219 posts

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

#131
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment.

>"Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment." We can also live in a cave, better for the environment.

Or just dissapear (which btw, no joking, is what some people propose)

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think necessarily. I don’t think it’s possible to devise a capitalist system that doesn’t devolve into oligarchic control. Markets can’t be regulated like the theory wants, because capitalists just use their wealth to take over the politicians. They are able to do this because they control so much wealth. To prevent this hack, you’d have to take control of capital away from the capitalists, thus defeating the core idea of capitalism.

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

#133
post #79

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

Any other predictions you saw/see coming? I feel like it would be useful to collect all of the predictions from people with domain knowledge and then build a website to track them all. Whether or not they happen, who knows, but being able to track them should be a big help in building a narrative of what is really happening vs media narratives that are hyper localized in time and often do a terrible job of explaining the long history of events.

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

#134
post #130

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…

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.

She was starting to concentrate on the Ag consolidation [0] but my interpretation is she targeted tech first due to the industry's somewhat weaker political position in both admins.

She also didn't touch Comcast - and they are the kingmakers in PA and DE.

[0] - https://www.law.nyu.edu/news/katzmann-lecture-lina-khan-talk...

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

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funding was recently cut but this infestation has been building for years. The key failure that caused this current outbreak was during COVID. The lockdowns shut down both the release flights by the US and the mosquito breeding facilities in Latina America, grinding the whole pest control program to a halt.

Someone must have decided they weren't "essential". Big mistake.

Twice

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

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

He's so effectively standing alone that nobody dare stand against him.

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

#138
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm... USDA manages the production of the sterile flies. USAID was a major funding source for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization which did the monitoring.

I appreciate you citing the USAID funding but you seem to be trying to prove a point rather than get to the truth. Screwworm detection and prevention was not halted because of the USAID shutdown, USDA is actively working on it, one can see this by going to usda.gov and searching for "screwworm". I really appreciate ajmurmann's edit which acknowledges this.

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm...

> Among the GHS projects killed were some dedicated to *monitoring and containing avian flu and New World Screwworm in Central America, monitoring* avian flu outbreaks in Asia and improving the detection of new strains, and efforts to combat swine fever, according to a person familiar with the situation granted anonymity to speak frankly.

you might not have intended to mislead, but the cited source indicates that at least some were defined and thus halted, in partial contradiction to your line "Screwworm detection and prevention was not halted because of the USAID shutdown"

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

#140
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's due to issues around monopolization in the Dairy and Cattle industry in the US [1]. 70% of all processors in the dairy and cattle industry are now owned by 3 companies. Processors don't own cattle - they just process raw material like dairy and meat into cheese and pasteurized milk and handle the entire supply chain. But because they control the supply chain, distribution, and even the feed [0] used they can s…

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.

Profit margin increasing by a percentage point on a low margin business is potentially significant
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