10 min
Where Does Your Beef Come From? I Believe
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- Philosophy
Do you know where your beef comes from?
Cattle wear earrings. They’re not decorative; their primary purpose is to assist ranchers in managing and aiding their herds. The earrings have unique patterns of numbers or letters, allowing ranchers to identify individual cattle.
On April 26, 2024, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) passed a final rule requiring animal agriculture producers to use electronic identification eartags for cattle and bison. Electronic identification tags don’t store any information on their own. Rather, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology allows readers and data systems to quickly scan the tags and build comprehensive location and animal health profiles.
USDA calls their earrings Official Identification (Official ID). When the April 26th rule goes into effect, cattle and bison over 18 months of age and all dairy cattle moving across state lines must have electronic identification earrings. Previously, USDA allowed both metal and electronic identification tags. Other smaller classifications of cattle, such as rodeo stock, will require electronic identification. The entire rule can be reviewed here if you are interested in the specifics.
With the rule change, USDA intends to strengthen animal disease traceability (ADT) “to help quickly pinpoint and respond to costly foreign animal diseases.” Traceability is “one of the best protections against disease outbreaks…that allows for quick tracing of sick and exposed animals to stop disease spread.”
Animal Disease Traceability achieves two goals.
* ADT helps achieve a safe food supply.
ADT enables animal health officials at federal and state levels to quickly locate and quarantine potentially diseased or exposed animals. Quicker response times to disease outbreaks prevent potentially contaminated meat from entering the consumer market.
Traceability in beef markets is exceptionally difficult. Figure 7, below, taken from USDA Economic Research Service Report Number 830, depicts the complexity of beef commodities. Electronic tags facilitate real-time data access across the supply chain, enhancing responsiveness during disease outbreaks.
To make the figure more relevant, we need to keep in mind that there are 92 million cattle in the US. Cattle move in a near-constant state between these various locations. There are cow-calf operators, stockers, feedlots, and processing plants across the country. On average (based on a conservative assumption of three movements per lifetime), approximately 285,000 cattle move to a new location in the US every day.
ADT helps achieve a second goal.
* ADT helps keep markets open.
Disease outbreaks shut markets down.
During the 2001 Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in Britain, officials initially responded slowly, and animals passed the highly infectious and sometimes fatal FMD through markets. Eventually, Britain shut down all animal markets to attempt to contain the disease spread. During the outbreak, Britain slaughtered more than six million cattle and sheep. The total cost of the outbreak exceeded $17 billion US dollars, expressed in today’s dollars. The new USDA rules could prevent such a scenario in the US by enabling quicker disease response.
The benefits of this new rule are clear. Further, its implementation presents two big opportunities for the future of American agriculture: individual consumer choice and improved ranch management.
Individual Consumer Choice
Consumers must have the knowledge and freedom to choose products and services that align with their values and needs.
Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics. He outlined a capability approach to humanity, detailed in his 1999 book Development as Freedom. Sen posits that true economic development comes from enhancing individual capabilities and choices, not just GDP growth.
For Sen, capability refers to the opportunity to achieve well-being. Freedom encompasses the real choices individuals h
Do you know where your beef comes from?
Cattle wear earrings. They’re not decorative; their primary purpose is to assist ranchers in managing and aiding their herds. The earrings have unique patterns of numbers or letters, allowing ranchers to identify individual cattle.
On April 26, 2024, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) passed a final rule requiring animal agriculture producers to use electronic identification eartags for cattle and bison. Electronic identification tags don’t store any information on their own. Rather, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology allows readers and data systems to quickly scan the tags and build comprehensive location and animal health profiles.
USDA calls their earrings Official Identification (Official ID). When the April 26th rule goes into effect, cattle and bison over 18 months of age and all dairy cattle moving across state lines must have electronic identification earrings. Previously, USDA allowed both metal and electronic identification tags. Other smaller classifications of cattle, such as rodeo stock, will require electronic identification. The entire rule can be reviewed here if you are interested in the specifics.
With the rule change, USDA intends to strengthen animal disease traceability (ADT) “to help quickly pinpoint and respond to costly foreign animal diseases.” Traceability is “one of the best protections against disease outbreaks…that allows for quick tracing of sick and exposed animals to stop disease spread.”
Animal Disease Traceability achieves two goals.
* ADT helps achieve a safe food supply.
ADT enables animal health officials at federal and state levels to quickly locate and quarantine potentially diseased or exposed animals. Quicker response times to disease outbreaks prevent potentially contaminated meat from entering the consumer market.
Traceability in beef markets is exceptionally difficult. Figure 7, below, taken from USDA Economic Research Service Report Number 830, depicts the complexity of beef commodities. Electronic tags facilitate real-time data access across the supply chain, enhancing responsiveness during disease outbreaks.
To make the figure more relevant, we need to keep in mind that there are 92 million cattle in the US. Cattle move in a near-constant state between these various locations. There are cow-calf operators, stockers, feedlots, and processing plants across the country. On average (based on a conservative assumption of three movements per lifetime), approximately 285,000 cattle move to a new location in the US every day.
ADT helps achieve a second goal.
* ADT helps keep markets open.
Disease outbreaks shut markets down.
During the 2001 Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in Britain, officials initially responded slowly, and animals passed the highly infectious and sometimes fatal FMD through markets. Eventually, Britain shut down all animal markets to attempt to contain the disease spread. During the outbreak, Britain slaughtered more than six million cattle and sheep. The total cost of the outbreak exceeded $17 billion US dollars, expressed in today’s dollars. The new USDA rules could prevent such a scenario in the US by enabling quicker disease response.
The benefits of this new rule are clear. Further, its implementation presents two big opportunities for the future of American agriculture: individual consumer choice and improved ranch management.
Individual Consumer Choice
Consumers must have the knowledge and freedom to choose products and services that align with their values and needs.
Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics. He outlined a capability approach to humanity, detailed in his 1999 book Development as Freedom. Sen posits that true economic development comes from enhancing individual capabilities and choices, not just GDP growth.
For Sen, capability refers to the opportunity to achieve well-being. Freedom encompasses the real choices individuals h
10 min