# I Just Have to Say It - HA! In Your Face, U.S. Beef Industry **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 24, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744 "2005-06-24T22:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/61 "2005-06-27T04:34:03Z")
**chorpler** , without knowing where you are, the best advice I can give you is to look at this [list](http://www.bisoncentral.com/nba/assocat.asp?catid=1) of regional bison producer associations. Check out the nearest one. I would expect most of their websites would include information about where their product can be obtained. Failing that, email them. Bison tastes much like beef, but I think it has more flavour. **This Year’s Model** , it would take a while for the industry to switch over entirely. The bison herd is sitting somewhere around a half million. It would take decades to build it up to the size of the beef herd. Plus there’d be a huge expense in upgrading handling facilities. Bison will completely destroy handling systems built for cattle. They’re a smidgen less docile. Okay, more than a smidgen. Amazing beasts, though. It looks very neat to see them sauntering across the prairie when I’m out at the farm. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/62 "2005-06-27T04:52:42Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > **This Year’s Model** , it would take a while for the industry to switch over entirely. The bison herd is sitting somewhere around a half million. It would take decades to build it up to the size of the beef herd. Plus there’d be a huge expense in upgrading handling facilities. Bison will completely destroy handling systems built for cattle. They’re a smidgen less docile. Okay, more than a smidgen. Amazing beasts, though. It looks very neat to see them sauntering across the prairie when I’m out at the farm. Is the cattle industry at all likely to move toward [Beefalo](http://www.ababeefalo.org/abi4.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/63 "2005-06-27T05:17:19Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Is the cattle industry at all likely to move toward [Beefalo](http://www.ababeefalo.org/abi4.htm)? Nope. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/64 "2005-06-27T16:49:48Z")
I don’t get it. If you don’t like beef then why is your username **RubySteak**? 😉 mmmm, a nice ruby red steak… ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/65 "2005-06-27T17:03:34Z")
Just out of curiousity, is there actually any evidence that BSE causes CJ disease in humans? I know the diseases are similar, but do we know that the one causes the other? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/66 "2005-06-27T17:45:25Z")
Good question - from [this](http://members.aol.com/larmstr853/cjdvoice/facts.htm) site: > [@](#): > > Although laboratory tests have shown a strong similarity between the prions causing BSE and v-CJD, there is no direct proof to support this theory. I was not able to find a date for that article, however. It sounds like the bottom line is probably, but we’re not entirely sure yet. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/67 "2005-06-27T20:16:12Z")
Come on **Featherlou** , let’s get off the high-horse shall we? Do you honestly think that if an American cow in Canada has tested positive instead of the other way around, Canada would have just written the incident off? I think they would have done the same thing the U.S. did. Hell, in 2001 Canada banned beef imports from Brazil in fear of mad cow though NO cows in Brazil had tested positive. The move was widely seen as a thinly veiled attempt by Canada to force Brazil into agreeing to Canada’s position on an aircraft dispute, however, and Canada was forced to drop the beef ban after three weeks. There are lots of trade disputes between our countries, but to simply follow the nationalistic drumbeat is silly. There are American sides to the arguments as well. And at least we’ve never taken hundreds of tourists hostage in such a dispute. For those who don’t know, I’m referring to the 1997 incident in British Columbia stemming from a salmon dispute in which fishermen from each country accused each other of stealing their fish. An armada of Canadian fishing vessels descend on a port and trapped an American ferry carrying about 300 tourists. The fishermen burnt U.S. flags and said they would not allow the ferry to leave until the U.S. gave into their side of the argument. Canadian courts ruled the blockade was illegal, but no Canadian military or law enforcement vessels (who had been johnny-on-the-spot when it came time to fire warning shots at a Spanish fishing trawler in International waters a couple years earlier) took action to break up the flotilla. The ferry was finally allowed to leave after being trapped for three days. ---
**Author:** ![alimarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/68 "2005-06-27T20:44:46Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > … I suggest you think on how to spare the suffering of other people before you get all bleeding heart over those poor cows… You want to stop people’s suffering? Get them to stop eating so much beef! Talk about feeding cows to cows… ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/69 "2005-06-28T12:26:55Z")
Thanks, Gorsnak. I’m the product of many generations of Alberta farmers and ranchers. Thankfully, most of the family had shifted to grain farming before this whole mess started. I vote yes for BEEF. Although, the beef we get here (Maryland) kinda sucks. When I go home to Alberta to visit, I eat steak just about every night. Grain-finished and aged… yum! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/70 "2005-06-28T14:06:05Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > \Thankfully, most of the family had shifted to grain farming before this whole mess started. > \ That’s kinda funny, from a Saskatchewanian perspective. “Whew, glad we got out of that risky beef business for something stable like grain farming.” 😃 (I come from generations of Saskatchewan farmers, too. My parents were both raised on farms.) ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/71 "2005-06-28T15:26:19Z")
Hey Ruby, I have a question for you. What exactly is it about wolves and bison that makes them more worthy than cows? If you have X acres of land that can support either Y number of cows or Z number of wolves and bison, why do demand that it be the wolves and bison that live there? At least cows are useful, wolves and bison, while pretty to look at, are not. Oh, and what are you going to do with the tens of millions of cows set free upon an unsuspecting ecosystem when your fantasy come true? Finally exactly how many people have had their “brains rot” from mad cow disease? The number worldwide is statistically insignificant, and far, far fewer than those killed in, say, car accidents. You’re proposing a nuclear solution to a popgun problem. Do you have any points that make any logical sense at all? ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/72 "2005-06-28T15:35:19Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > That’s kinda funny, from a Saskatchewanian perspective. “Whew, glad we got out of that risky beef business for something stable like grain farming.” 😃 > > (I come from generations of Saskatchewan farmers, too. My parents were both raised on farms.) You know, after I posted this, I realized I was wrong. Canola isn’t a grain. I think there are still a few scattered barley and oats crops, but mostly canola. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/73 "2005-06-28T21:28:04Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > You know, after I posted this, I realized I was wrong. Canola isn’t a grain. I think there are still a few scattered barley and oats crops, but mostly canola. Canola may be an oilseed rather than a cereal, but I’ve never heard the growing of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, or other assorted crops described as anything other than ‘grain farming’. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744/74 "2005-06-28T21:33:46Z")
Y’see, it’s not a grain unless I get it stuck in my boots when we’re filling the granaries. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-have-to-say-it-ha-in-your-face-u-s-beef-industry/309744.md?page=3)