Be careful what you support today because it may cut your throat tomorrow.

@Bumpus 11842 wrote:

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There are many different groups who want to control every aspect of your life to there way of thinking on how you should live, breath, eat, and make a living today, and in the future, etc.

I remember back some years ago that what is restricted today was unbelievable and laughed at back 50 years ago.

Stop tree cutting because of an Owl with spots on it.
Stop Whale killing for people who have eaten them for centuries.
Stop horse slaughter, and restrict consumption, and prevent burial after there death.
Stop land timber cutting because of minnows in the creek.

Many want all cattle to be raised on nothing but grass
and do away with all feed lot operations.

There is not enough grass on the planet earth to raise half of the livestock to meet the demand for beef meat.

And the list goes on and on just naming a few things.

It won’t be long and there ( may already be ) people who are working to make you take that harness of that horse, mule, oxen etc. because to them it is not natural and it is cruel to make them work.

They will work to make you put them back into the wild
so they can be free spirited, and beautiful to watch for others.

Don’t laugh … just watch … it’s coming.

Many people laughed 50 – 70 years ago at those ideas
but those same people are crying today.

Who knows what it might be next …

SAVE THE ENDANGERED COCK ROACHS AND TERMITES 😮
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There are many different groups who want to control every aspect of your life to there way of thinking on how you should live, breath, eat, and make a living today, and in the future, etc.

I agree and disagree with you Bumpus. In fact, I think that is what much of the health care hub-bub is really all about. Many of the partisans on either side of the aisle could give a crap about who has health care and what kind of health care they get. What they are really after is CONTROL. They want CONTROL over as many aspects of your life as possible; therefore you will do what you are told, when you are told it. Kind of a cliché, but still true … dictators prefer an ignorant, unarmed population. It also helps if that ignorant, unarmed population has no economic opportunity for self determination. Then they line up like chickens at the feed pan and submit to whatever it takes to get a smidgen of scratch.

In today’s news is the story that the FCC wants to “regulate” the internet. Say it ain’t so, Al Gore! I think the internet works just fine without another government agency sticking their face in it. Where do these people get off?

Many want all cattle to be raised on nothing but grass
and do away with all feed lot operations.

There is not enough grass on the planet earth to raise half of the livestock to meet the demand for beef meat.

I disagree with you about grass finished beef, for several reasons;
1) There was virtually no feedlot industry before the end of WWII. It developed when and where it did not because it was a better alternative to grass finishing, but because it is cheaper and easier to ship the finished product, beef, pork, mutton etc than it is to ship grain. It is however a FASTER way to reach finish weight than finishing on grass, so the time value of money factor does tip the scales toward the feedlot boys.

2) The statement that there isn’t enough grass in the world to finish beef on is invalid, because outside of the U.S. and Canada most countries in the world continue to grass finish beef. There is some feedlot type production starting in South America, but on a very small scale. Same is true in some other countries, but because grain is more valuable for other purposes than for feeding to slaughter animals it is not going to change any time soon. Not that there is NO feeding going on, but it is rather limited compared to what we do here. Also, if you look at the premier grass finishing area in the world … the Argentine Pampas …and compare it the overall land mass of that country & then compare it to the land mass of the USA on a percentage basis you will see that it is an area roughly the size of from Oklahoma City over to the Arkansas / Oklahoma state line wide and from about the middle of Oklahoma up to the middle of Kansas high. It so happens that the eastern Oklahoma & Kansas area mentioned WAS at the heart of the grass finishing business when it was in vogue. While that is a big geographic area, there are massive areas outside of the above mentioned region where finishing can and does occur. Much of the west coast has climate and grass that are VERY conducive to grass finishing, same with Appalachia, New England and in the winter and spring (using ryegrass and/or wheat & oats) the entire Gulf Coast from the Middle Texas Coast clear around to Florida and a couple of hundred miles inland. In fact this was the last area where grass finished beef was routinely produced, right up to about 30 or 35 years ago.

3) Next, while there may be some environmental activists that favor grass finishing to grain finishing that is not what is driving this growing market. The idea of being able to LOCALLY produce beef has a lot of appeal to some producers and to many consumers. Hard to do in areas where grain is not grown on a large scale, unless you finish ’em on grass. Also, the grass finished beef stores longer, stays fresher and has higher concentrations of Omega 3’s, and lower Omega 6’s than does grain finished beef. i.e. a better ratio. It is darker in color than grain finished beef and it does have a different flavor. It does not usually leave the greasy taste in your mouth that grain feed beef does.

Ever heard the statement that our beef us the envy of the world? Don’t believe it. Most foreigners think our beef is bland and lacking texture. They DO NOT line up to buy our exported beef.

4) Finally, most producers of grass finished beef hope the feedlots NEVER go away. Why? Because right now they can command a PREMIUM for their product compared to grain fed beef. If grass finished became the norm, bye-bye premium.