Lol Americans aren;t allowed to cut their own meat without daddy government and the Big Four approval
https://meatnbone.com/blogs/the-clever-cleaver/history-what-happened-to-the-traditional-butcher-shopThe beef industry is one of the oldest in the United States, cattle was introduced to north America circa 1493. Many regard Christopher Columbus as the man who introduced cattle to North America (So perhaps, Columbus day makes sense after all!!).
Beef has always been a big business, the need to transport cattle paved the way for construction of Chicago's Union Stockyard, Cold storage solutions and the goodnight-loving trail. Heck, even barbed wire and the revolution of packaging is in part a result of raising cattle!
When we think of beef, we think of farmers who raise animals with love and care, who then take it to the slaughterhouse and sell it. That was the case all the way up to 1967, a time when the large urban livestock markets of Omaha and Chicago were at their peaks. But in 1967, a company by the name of Iowa Beef Packers (IBP) revolutionised the industry with the concept of Boxed Beef.
Before boxed beef, butchers would receive a SIDE of beef (Imagine the cow split down the middle from head to rear). Sides of beef are impractical, heavy and massive. Cutting a side of beef can be fun, but it is inefficient. Boxed beef meant sides of beef where no longer sent to butchers of supermarkets, now slaughterhouses would process the sides into Primals, Subprimals and ground beef which would then be shipped to supermarkets and butchers.
At this point economies of scale started to give supermarkets an advantage over mom and pop butchers. Supermarkets were able to move cases of beef much easier than traditional butchers who were set up to process sides of beef.
As the big 4 took control of the meat market, they threw around their weight to squeeze farmers for better and better margins. Then they started to consolidate vertically and out-right bought out many of these farmers. Commodity operations lost their ability to negotiate prices and had to adapt or die… this is how CAFO farms started to become the norm.
CAFO stands for concentrated animal feeding operation… and they have been around since the 1930s. These are massive farms where cattle is confined to gain weight for 45 days in a year. CAFO farms have allowed BETTER and CHEAPER meat to become the norm, they have driven prices to the ground. They are the reason the price of meat, milk and eggs can be so low (hello Walmart, Wild Forks, etc..)
freedom btw, bunch of fucking nazis tell me how to live my life when you aren't even allowed to cut your own meat SMH, Americans are bottom of the barrel and have no right to tell anyone anything if this is how they live
