Over at NPR there's a story (from last year that we just saw today) that addresses a question we've had while shopping in supermarkets here in the Capital Region: Why is the grassfed beef from Australia? And how could shipping the meat from literally the other side of the globe be cheaper than getting it from, say, Berne? A big part of the answer: scale. [via @NYFarmer]
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Comments
And sunshine.
I'm glad the answer wasn't something more sinister. Looks like I can keep enjoying this delicious meat from around the world (just so long as fuel costs don't make it cost prohibitive to ship, or climate change kills all the grasslands of Australia).
... said Daniel B. on Jun 5, 2014 at 3:36 PM | link
There was an offer on carbon offsets in the New Yorker some time ago in which it was calculated that it was cheaper and had a smaller carbon footprint to grow lamb in New Zealand for UK consumption than to grow it domestically. Grass is much cheaper to grow there and much more abundant and the land isn't bid up for other uses. And the carbon cost of transporting one frozen chop in a container ship with millions of them is actually pretty insignificant.
Probably something similar holds true for beef. We forget the trade-offs of using land for grazing (very inefficient) when it might be used for something else.
... said Burnt My Fingers on Jun 5, 2014 at 9:09 PM | link