Author: Kim du Toit

Aaaargh

Economics, Farming, Food & Drink

So much for my BBQ:

America’s ranchers are facing their smallest cattle herd in 75 years, a shortage now rippling from pastures to some of the nation’s largest meatpackers.

USDA data shows the U.S. entered 2026 with about 86.2 million cattle and calves, the smallest herd since the early 1950s. That’s down from roughly 94.7 million cattle and calves in 2019, a decline of more than 8 million animals.

And therefore:

Tyson Foods announced last week that it will close beef facilities in Illinois and Utah and pursue the sale of another in Washington as it reshapes its beef business amid what the company called one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced. Tyson said recent USDA data suggest supply constraints are likely to persist.

And the reason:

“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, previously told Fox News Digital.

He said years of dry weather have depleted grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds. Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making the road to recovery even longer.

The effects are reaching beyond ranches and into grocery stores, where consumers are paying more for beef.

Tell me about it.  Beef has long been a staple chez Du Toit, but I think our current consumption of steak, burgers and such has been more than halved over the past year or two.  As for going out for a steak dinner?  Not since B.C. (before Covid).

I can’t even afford to make my own biltong anymore.  No wonder New Wife has been cranky recently.

Worse is that I don’t much care for chicken, unless in toasties… but I guess that will have to change.

As much as I’m reluctant to let Gummint be involved in anything, I do think that cattle farmers could do with some help from that quarter.  (I don’t know where because I’m not a cattle farmer.  But no, it can’t come from tax relief because that just benefits Big Beef Inc., who controls most of our beef production.)

I have to tell y’all, though:  I’m getting kinda cranky myself every time I go into the store and see those beef prices.  Beef shouldn’t be a luxury foodstuff;  but it’s become one, and I don’t like it.

Thank you, Mother Nature, you dried-out old bitch.

Manufacturing Boom

Bureaucracy, Business

Well, yeah:

Both overseas and domestic business leaders recognize that investing domestically in the U.S. makes sense under a restrained regulatory environment that encourages innovation and allows America’s entrepreneurial spirit to thrive. That legal and compliance framework is also now bolstered by an aggressive energy agenda that unleashes the full potential of America’s resources to power industry well into the future with plentiful, reliable U.S. energy.

Good.  Now do the same for agriculture.

Sneaky Stuff

Corporate Fuckery

From Reader Steve S. via email:

“This is the next step with the ‘add a tip’ option on the kiosks & checkout pads. Shake Shack’s kiosk demonstrates what happens when you don’t have a printed menu, but instead the kiosk displays what the computer is programmed to do. It asks for a ‘tip’, and if you chose ‘zero’, it increases the price of every item ordered by $0.50. As he notes, the kiosk in this case put up a pop-up noting the ‘price adjustment’, but how many kiosks are programmed to do it in the background where you will only see the total?

“I note it is Shake Shack, but have to believe that other vendors will do the same thing as long as they feel they can get away with it.”

I know a basic response to this bullshit.

Pay cash instead of using a card.

This, by the way, will actually have two effects.  Firstly, you won’t be caught up in this little bit of highway robbery.  Secondly, paying cash — actual cash — will remind you just how expensive so-called “convenience” food has become, which may result in you visiting these places on fewer occasions.

Just another way that “convenience” + “technology” = “ripoff”.

Oh, and one last thing:  for most retailers, the extended cost of handling cash is actually higher than paying the card transaction fee.

Yer welcome.

On a personal note, I have to say that I last bought a burger from Shake Shack about four years ago, and was thoroughly unimpressed.  Never again.

Our local BBQ joint has a menu item called a “French Fries Plate”, which consists of a hearty portion of pulled pork, mixed with cheesy fries, for about $14.  That may sound like a lot;  but when I say the portion is “hearty”, I mean that it’s enough to feed both New Wife and me — and $7 each for a takeout meal is not all that bad.  Plus, the food quality is excellent, something few people can say about takeout burgers, from any establishment.

Not Too Bad

Architecture

Of a Saturday morning, New Wife and I lie in bed together while reading Teh Intarwebz — this website, various news outlets and, of course, C.W.’s site, which features many pics that catch his attention.

One such C.W. pic was this one:

At first, I was appalled, but the more I looked at the building, the more I came round somewhat.  Yes, it does stand out (from what one can see) in a fairly conservatively-built neighborhood.  And yet… if you were to ask me what to call it, I’d have to say “Modern Art Deco” because of that giant circular window frame, and — dare I say it? — all those stained-glass windows, which give the thing a little more of a classical style.  It’s kinda 70s… and I grew up in the 1970s, lest we forget.  But the kicker is that whatever you call it, it’s a huge improvement on the foul 60s-era style of its neighbor standing on the right.

New Wife — who agrees with me on most matters like this — really liked it.  But then her inner chick came shining through on the next such pic:

…which she declared “cute”, even as I was reaching for a handy bedside barf bag.  I think what causes my opposition is the stained-glass front door (“Adorable”, quoth she, because she loves stained-glass anything:  doors, windows, Tiffany lamps, whatever).

Regardless, all that floral nonsense is still miles better than the ugly Po-Mo crap that’s foisted on us by the Le Corbusier School Of Ugliness.

But although the first edifice is still too modern for me, given a “must pick one” choice I think I’d take it over the Botanical Gardens thing.  Some things are just too much to bear

Discuss.