Grazing the Net

In response to USDA’s action on Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) yesterday, our neighbors to the north are threatening retaliation. The American Meat Institute says it’s impossible to comply — by today — as the rule states. Our grocery industry friends found it quite absurd. Reckon Vilsack will send people down the bunklines of feedyards asking cattle where their hometown is?

A roundup of the news on the subject:

•Cattle Network

•Food Safety News

•Journal of Commerce

•MSN even shared a balanced story on the subject

McDonalds Must Read This Blog

Yesterday we noted that many higher-end restaurants in Cleveland were offering local hero Charles Ramsey free burgers for life, but Micky D’s had yet to chime in. Thursday, the chain stepped up and offered free food for a year. We’ll be watching for the uptick in beef demand when Ramsey cashes in on these offers.

If Ramsey gets tired of beef, he can always try these chicken-free strips. Yum, yum. But if you’re looking for a product that "looks, tastes and chews just like chicken," why not eat chicken?

For Diehard Beef Lovers

In case you’re bored with chocolate ice cream...Time magazine rounded up the 15 funkiest ice cream flavors. How ‘bout a scoop of Bone Marrow with Smoked Cherries? Don’t worry. The pork industry isn’t left out. There’s a ham and cheese variety, too.

And in the spirit of Memorial Day, the "Eat Like A Man" blog

offers these savory tips

to make the most of your red-white-&-blue BBQ.

More Bits from the Net

You Might Want to Start Feeding Wheat

The farm…yawn…bill is still being kicked around in the Senate Ag Committee. Big farmers might have to pay more premiums, amid news crop insurance was a corn lifeline for 2012. And how about the news that the renewable fuel folks are working to find more ways the crop can power cars? Yipee.

Tough Day for Horses

On a serious note, the Oklahoma tornado’s toll on livestock — particularly horses — is devastating. Although few have reported cattle losses since the super storm took a more urban path, our equine friends weren’t so lucky. Racing operations in Oklahoma and Texas, as well as cutting horse farms, were destroyed.

Hats Off to Cornell University...

...for developing a less expensive DNA profile for cattle.

Looks like Charles Ramsey will never go hungry as long as he still has a hankering for beef. Ramsey, who was famously eating a burger form McDonalds on his porch when he heard Cleveland kidnap victim Amanda Berry scream for help, was offered free burgers for life from 14 area restaurants. Hodge’s, the restaurant where Ramsey washes dishes, even created a special item on the menu – the Ramsey Burger – and is selling Hero T-shirts with Ramsey’s liking on the front.

McDonalds, however, has not matched the free beef offers. Guess Ramsey will have to adapt to a more upscale taste. Good thing for cattlemen Ramsey wasn’t eating McNuggets…

DailyMail: Free beef for life

Cleveland: Burger named for Ramsey

Hero tee link: Charles Ramsey Cleveland Hero tee

I plead the Fifth!

Anyone surprised the IRS director who pled the Fifth is an interesting bedfellow with HSUS? Perhaps she better dig up her U.S. History notes…looks like she botched her Constitutional right. Appears Congress is saving her hot seat for another round.

Beef Magazine: HSUS Appears To Have A Powerful Friend Within the IRS

ABC News: Did Lois Lerner Botch Fifth Amendment Rights?

Fox News: Issa looks to call back IRS official who refused to testify

Not-so-COOL action by the USDA

The not-so-COOL action by the USDA gets a thumbs-down from ranchers. Cowmen better sharpen their pencils and loosen their pocketbooks. Packers better stock up on Excedrin®.

Farm bill back-and-forths continue

Ag-friendly senators fight for benefits, while democrats play the religious card for food stamps.

No news is good news

Our "friends" at the Hutchison, Kansas, paper offer this take on beta agonists and the drought. Not great press at home while the USMEF works with Russia and others to export a ractopamine-free beef supply

Join the rest of the country in kicking-off summer by lighting the grill

It got Charles Ponzi, and now it is adding a little more time for Eastern’s Tommy Gibson

And to think for years, we’ve been told that cows burping was a big cause of global warming

There is precious little coverage in the general media about yesterday's Senate farm bill debate. and most of that centers on food stamps. Our sample:

Politico: Farm Bill Beats Back Foes

WaPo: Senate Votes to Make Small Cut to Food Stamps in Farm Bill 

Vilsack: Ag Secretary: U.S. House Version of Farm Bill Could Hurt Montana 

Let 'em in. The straight ones, anyhow

The Gang of Eight's immigration bill made it out of committee fairly well intact, and it has all the amnesty anybody could want. Not so much on the low-skill labor that might help out in the feedlot and weed hoeing business.  The shiny object that caught the media's attention was something about same sex couples.

NPR: Senate Panel Approves Immigration Bill

WaPo: Senate Panel Approves Deal on Foreign Workers

Daily Beast: Senate Committee OKs Farm Bill Overhaul

NatReview: Toxic Immigration

Let's label this stuff

We don't always agree with the food safety lawyers' quest for perfectly safe beef, but we do on this thing about labeling tenderized beef.  Why not move ahead?

Bittman's apology for not going vegan

Mark Bittman's NYT stuff might give us all indigestion, but you better believe his whinings and dinings are at the vanguard of the anti-beef movement. It's nice to know he doesn't think a single serving of meat will kill you.

HSUS mole takes the fifth

This is the lady who apparently helped HSUS get itself labeled "non-political."

NBC on WTO Cool

Imagine our surprise to find this on NBC's site. The general media. Noticing there is some dissent on meat labeling.

Here’s your chance to sign a pro-HSUS petition

Keeping beef in school menus

Kindra Gordon does her usual good job on an important issue for the Angus Journal.

A most curious headline

It has nothing to do with beef or cattle, but Pravda's take on the Oklahoma tornado seems to make a religious/political judgment:

Act of God strikes Oklahoma, over 100 killed, many of them children

Sudden science

This virus was first found in 2011 and, zippo-zappo, they've got a vaccine.

Pond scum is green-trendy?

Count us and our horse tanks in.

Soooo….can your yappy little heeler conjugate a verb?

There is scientific consensus that the border collie is intellectually superior to all other dogs, especially heelers, and now this official scientist has, through science, proved they can also learn grammar, indicating they are also smarter than your average cowboy. Not that there’s any news in that.

This is a pretty detailed look at how BSE wormed its way into the Canadian cow herd. Don't worry. It's old news and it winds up pointing that the problem is, at worst, very rare.

And, in England, they still get the occasional case. But now it's being passed around ,not by beef, but by blood transfusions and medical procedures.

The toll of "closing" the border

Start this review of immigration policy with a read on how desperate immigrants are to get into the U.S. and then continue on to read a bit about Washington's effort to convince voters they are going to do something about it all. Oops. We mean "solve the problem."

Yak. Yak. The farm bill gets another hearing.

The full Senate is undergoing a debate on their version of the farm bill this morning. And yes, they are all paying full attention.

They're blaming the Brazos County e. Coli problem on ground beef

FSIS inspector takes the horse slaughter spotlight

Pollan does some germ gazing

Michael Pollan has a darned interesting piece in the latest edition of the New York Time's Sunday Magazine. He points out that lots of bacteria are important allies in mankind's survival. Here are links to the whole looooong article and a shorter piece in a later paper. The former is worth using a non-subscriber chit.

Gut bacteria that guard against E. coli

As if to reemphasize Pollan's point, these researchers indicate that the right bacteria--already in our guts--can protect us from the effects of E. coli

Good news from USDA

USDA researchers say they've found a way to greatly enhance the identification of FMD virus.

Crazy ants

Everybody who has fire ants would like to find a way to eradicate them. Turns out crazy ants are doing just that. The trouble is, nobody wants crazy ants, either. Some recent coverage:

Fox: Crazy Ants Driving Out Fire Ants

Christian Science Monitor: The South Welcomes Crazy Ants

TAMU: Tawny "Rasberry" Crazy Ant

Offloading cattle in Tasmania

The downunderers are about as dry as the western U.S., apparently, and facing a fall and winter with "too little fodder." So they are "offloading," and facing a bad market as a consequence.

Tyson welfare panel

We suspect you'll hear more from these folks later.

Hard choice: Food safety or wildlife

The Nature Conservancy says that all the efforts to keep poop out of the vegetable fields in California is hampering biodiversity.

Flash: We're getting older every day

Of course this is not news to Kevin Spafford but there are a bunch of agricultural practitioners getting, politely put, "on up there."

Argentina government kills its beef industry

China's government is helping, too.

Protecting their oh-so-safe consumers from that nasty New Zealand stuff.

Federal Reserve: Farmer, gird thy loins. Financially speaking

CNBC had a good take on the recent Federal Reserve report. The rhetorical title of the report is "Farm Investment and Leverage Cycles: Will This Time Be Different?" We suspect that last part is a rhetorical question.

The looming "fix" to MCool

Thursday is the deadline WTO set for USDA to finalize the rules it believes--"believes" being a strong term for it, we suspect--will allow the mandatory country of origin labeling law to meet trade obligations.

If there have been any second thoughts in the agency about its proposed regulations--which interests as diverse as Mexico and Canada, NCBA, AMI and FMI claim will be more discriminatory--there has been no sign of it.

A reminder, as the deadline approaches, can be found here.

Also, our most transparent secretary of agriculture in history produced this statement this morning, after his meeting with one of the claimants. It is Very, Very informative on the matter. NOT!

NPR projection: All meat sales banned in 2050

They were just conjecturing there, but there has been a lot of talk lately about the future of lab-grown meat. If you'd like to consider the prospects of such a future, devote a few moments to the clip sheet of Modern Meadow, the company that plans to make it all happen.

Again with the Record Prices! Record Prices!

Record beef prices are good for the people who make beef. That's us. We should be happy. But we might not want to just continue to remind consumers, day after day. GMC doesn't go to a lot of trouble to scream "Pickup prices higher than ever." That would not be smart marketing.

Thus, perhaps we should fret more about the ubiquitous "beef-prices-at-record" headlines we see in these daily internet scans. It probably is one of the reasons beef demand has deflated this year.

Beef's "iconic" marketing program.

Any one of us could, judging by the cow people we talk to, do a better job than the Beef Board does, but it's hard to argue with beef's inclusion in this list of the most iconic commercials of all time. They must be doing something right.

Couple of takes on the Cattle on Feed report

Bloomberg's take

Oklahoma Farm Report's take

Mosquito repellant reminder

Pinnochios for the HSUS IRS mole

You'll remember we mentioned earlier that the IRS lady is suspected of having greased the wheels for the HSUS tax exemption. If you missed it, here's a reminder from Humane watch and a rather uncomplimentary take on her credibility from the WaPo.

More woes for immigration "reform"

AgWeb: Immigration Encounters Business-Labor Rift that Undid 2007 Bill

NYT: Larger Union Enforcing Immigration Opposes Bill

Climate change this, climate change that.

Lamar Smith worries that all the hype is, in and of itself, bad for the economy.

Good news: Japan's hearty beef appetite

JBS says demand for beef in Japan is robust and profitable.

Slimed BPI struggles on