Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 206: Inside European Agriculture: Lessons (and Warnings) for U.S. Producers with Emma Coffman

Transcript

206: Inside European Agriculture: Lessons (and Warnings) for U.S. Producers with Emma Coffman · CattleUSA Daily

0:00
Have you ever wondered what actually is going on in EU
0:04
agriculture and how that is impacting us as AUS cattle
0:08
producer? Well, Emma Kaufman is breaking
0:11
all of that down for us today. Emma recently got back from a
0:14
trip to the EU and she saw it all from fear cattle operations
0:19
to dairy operations to Row copper operations and everything
0:23
else in between. And she brings some really great
0:26
insight for us as American cattle producers.
0:29
What is going on in the EU and how it could potentially be
0:33
impacting us here in the United States?
0:36
This is a really fun conversation and I just sit back
0:39
the whole time and I'm just in awe of everything that Emma
0:43
learned over while she was in Europe.
0:46
So without further ado, let's go ahead and hop into this episode
0:48
with Emma and hear it all from her.
0:50
But before we do, if you guys are watching on YouTube, make
0:53
sure that you are subscribed to our YouTube channel and that
0:55
you're liking this episode. If you're on any of our podcast
0:58
platforms, make sure that you follow this episode and that you
1:01
are liking and subscribing as well.
1:04
Thank you so much for being here and let's hear from Emma.
1:10
Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily Podcast, your go to source for
1:13
the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the
1:16
updates shaping agriculture today.
1:19
I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for
1:21
agriculture, here to keep you informed and connected.
1:25
Now let's dive into today's episode.
1:33
So before we jump into like our main topic today for everyone
1:37
listening is going to be Emma just got back from Europe on an
1:41
amazing trip over there and you were learning all about European
1:44
agriculture and what that looks like.
1:46
And they're insane restrictions on agriculture and just you were
1:49
learning about everything over there and the beef industry and
1:52
the dairy industry and crops and everything else.
1:55
So I'm so excited about that. First and foremost, tell me
1:59
about your trip to Europe. Where did you go?
2:00
What did you do? What did you learn?
2:02
Like I'm just, I'm so excited to hear all about kind of just some
2:06
insight as an American producer, how that kind of looked from the
2:11
standpoint of the differences between American agriculture and
2:14
EU agriculture and everything that kind of goes on there.
2:17
Yeah. And to your point, when you said
2:19
bridging the gap, that's actually our slogan for EE Ranch
2:21
advocacy is trying to bridge the gap between urban, rural
2:24
communities. And part of that is getting
2:26
boots on the ground. And so for those who may not
2:29
understand, please like and subscribe and follow all of our
2:32
channels on social media, YouTube, everything because that
2:35
viewership's the only way we get compensated.
2:37
We do not have any corporate sponsors at this current moment.
2:41
So if you'd like to sponsor us, please let us know because right
2:43
now it's just been off of affiliate type of marketing
2:47
stuff and then viewership. And so I saved up for over a
2:49
year, took EE Ranch full time November of last year.
2:53
So we're coming up on our one year birthday and the goal was
2:56
to always go international. So for those who don't know, I
2:58
have experience working abroad. I worked in Australia and that's
3:02
really where the seed got planted for wanting to talk
3:05
about international systems. And so when we here in the
3:08
United States hear a lot of what I thought what two months ago
3:14
was kind of fear mongering, like the EU is doing this or, oh, the
3:18
EU is doing this. Oh, they're taxing the farmers
3:20
out of production. We all saw France and the
3:23
farmers losing their mind and quite literally spraying
3:26
maneuver on the courthouses, which I mean, honestly, I mean,
3:29
we should truck our stuff over to New York.
3:31
I don't know. But going back to Europe.
3:33
So I didn't know what was reality and what was not.
3:36
And so in order to actually figure that out, I spend my own
3:39
time, my own money, take off of my own other jobs and I figure
3:44
it out. And so we spent, I say we, it's
3:47
me, myself and I, I have enough personalities to basically be
3:50
multiple people. So I spent time boots on the
3:53
ground on ranches. This wasn't a conference.
3:55
I did go to a conference, which we'll talk about here in a
3:57
minute. But this is stuff like on the
4:00
ground. This is not me going to a
4:03
convention and like having little chats with farmers.
4:05
No, like I'm on their property. I'm on dairies, I'm on beef
4:09
farms, I am on orchid growers properties, talking with them,
4:14
seeing what they're seeing and trying to get a better
4:17
understand of what they do. What we need to kind of
4:19
understand is that the European Union is very different.
4:24
We all know that the European Union is very restrictive in a
4:27
lot of the ways that they operate, especially in the ag
4:29
sector. The reason that they're able to
4:32
have such a tight control and choke chain over agriculture is
4:36
because agriculture is a much smaller operational sizes per
4:41
family than it is here. So your average cow calf herd
4:45
size in Ireland is like 40 cows. Your average dairy size is like
4:51
190, 200 at most. I went to the largest dairy over
4:56
there. It was 700 cows, actually, it
4:58
was like 659 I think. So we need to keep in mind that
5:02
we're dealing with much smaller land masses.
5:04
We're dealing with much smaller operation sizes.
5:07
And when you have a small community, if anyone's from a
5:10
small town, you know, if you get a DWI that night, it's going to
5:14
be running around before on Facebook before you even get
5:18
booked in jail. So not speaking from personal
5:20
experience, by the way, I just have been around Spearman, Texas
5:23
enough to know that that's how small communities work.
5:25
So watch out. Spearman, Texas is definitely a.
5:30
So keeping that in mind, I think that when we're here in the US,
5:35
it's very difficult for us to realize how other countries got
5:38
to where they're at. That is a prime example of why
5:41
now I went to spend a week in Ireland, a week in the UK and
5:44
the week in the Netherlands. What we also need to understand
5:47
is the UK is not a part of the EU.
5:50
They left the EU but they still abide by EU standards for food
5:55
production in order to import and export from the EU
5:59
sanctioned countries. Now what people also need to
6:01
realize is that a little history lesson.
6:03
Ireland is 2 separate places. You have the EU which is
6:08
Southern Ireland and then you have the UK which is the
6:10
northern island. It is two different currencies,
6:12
it is two different regulations. Still the same continent or not
6:17
even continent island. It's the same island, but it is
6:20
2 separate environments. And you can tell by the way
6:24
people act, by the operations that you go to, the types of
6:27
facilities you see. You can see and feel a
6:31
difference between the two. One side of the island has no
6:36
problem with EU standards because similar to the US, which
6:39
I thought was really funny, they're also subsidized.
6:42
We hear consistently on the Internet.
6:44
Oh, we shouldn't be subsidized. Oh, we shouldn't be subsidized.
6:47
Guess what? Europe is subsidized and the
6:51
reason that they are subsidized is for a whole back story, which
6:54
can be completely different podcast.
6:55
But they do not get paid unless they abide by EU regulations.
7:00
Now when the cameras cut off and we're having candid
7:03
conversations, especially on the northern side, they're like,
7:05
this is ridiculous. I cannot, I can't get a permit
7:09
to build a hay barn, an overhang for my hay.
7:13
It's going to take seven years for me to get a permit and
7:16
$200,000 U.S. dollars in order to get a permit to get a hay
7:22
barn put up. And I'm like, if you want to put
7:24
a hay barn up, you can do it tomorrow if you want.
7:26
As long as your lender or whoever, what financial
7:28
institution you're working with, you can get contractors not over
7:32
there. They are actively constricting
7:35
the amount of progression of development of agriculture in
7:40
the European Space. So just to lay the groundwork,
7:43
hopefully this is a good maybe boundary.
7:46
So keep put our mind into why some of these regulations with
7:49
the EU have been put in in the 1st place and why you can't just
7:54
say. No.
7:56
We're going to throw your tea in the harbor and say screw you as
7:58
well. Like, I mean, like Americans are
7:59
very independent and very protective of their information,
8:01
right? The EUI see both sides.
8:04
As an American over there, the American side of me is like
8:07
absolute freaking lutely not. We cannot follow this this
8:12
route, but putting my pretend EU resident hat on, I'm like, I
8:18
also understand how some of these things came to happen.
8:23
Yeah, absolutely. It is crazy to see the impact of
8:28
everything that has happened over in Europe and every like
8:32
all the regulations, all the things like that.
8:34
And I think the biggest concern that a lot of American producers
8:37
have is from just a standard of food processing, of makeup, skin
8:45
care, all of these other things. We have seen a massive trend of
8:49
the consumer population look to EU standards and say, like, this
8:54
is the gold standard. EU standards are the gold
8:57
standard. Why isn't the United States this
8:59
way, like all of these different things.
9:01
And so I think it's concerning for some producers to see what
9:05
is happening in the EU and say, are we next?
9:09
Is this the path that we're going to go down?
9:12
Like are we going to be forced into these situations, in these
9:15
scenarios? Now, again, you made a great
9:18
point of we have to remember the landmass that they are working
9:20
with over there and the size of operations are drastically
9:23
different from the size of operations that we are seeing
9:25
here in the United States. But nonetheless, it is still a
9:28
concern and it is still something that needs to be
9:31
talked about. And I think it's important from
9:33
a global standpoint to understand production
9:36
agriculture outside of the United States as well, because
9:38
imports and exports play a very, very large role in the United it
9:42
States agricultural economy. And the EU plays a big role in
9:47
that, or at least they used to. They don't maybe play as big of
9:49
a role now as they used to, but it is still important to
9:53
understand from a global standpoint as well.
9:55
Yeah, I mean, dairy products is one of the top exports of all
9:59
three of those countries. And what's wild is like dairy
10:02
from Ireland will go into the UK and then what's weird is like
10:06
the wolf of the Ireland will be exported to the UK and then the
10:10
UK will manufacture and then they sell to other countries.
10:13
So it's very similar to us. Everything is a commodity and
10:16
we're looking at beef prices right now.
10:18
We need to keep in mind that this is a commodity.
10:20
Commodities go up and down supply and demand.
10:23
Of course, I am a very big proponent of supporting
10:26
agriculture, supporting the fiber industry by wearing
10:29
natural fibers and avoiding polyester at all costs.
10:32
But when we're looking at the percentages of some of the
10:36
reports that the EU puts out, remember much smaller landmass.
10:41
And I, I don't even know the number of what Ireland's
10:44
population is, but the entirety of Ireland can't be a drop of
10:48
compared to what the even Texas's own population is.
10:52
So you're doing with a much smaller land mesh, much smaller
10:55
population. So when Europe comes out and
10:58
says, well, methane production is counts of, I don't know, like
11:02
let's just say 30% of our climate change concerns, Well,
11:08
guess what? All of agriculture in the United
11:10
States is less than 11%. Beef cattle alone are less than
11:13
2%. So when you are dealing with
11:17
it's, it's like we're going to take a step back, go back to
11:19
middle school, my elementary, middle school teachers, be so
11:22
proud. Remember when we had the marbles
11:23
in the bag and your percent chance of picking a certain
11:26
color depending on how many marbles and how much of each
11:29
color in the bag, Each color represents a different industry,
11:32
residential, transportation, agriculture, commercial.
11:36
Then if you have a lower amount of marbles in the bag, your
11:40
percent chance of picking a color is going to go up versus
11:43
when you have a larger bag and you keep those same proportions,
11:47
but you change that proportion with the percentage of how much
11:50
more marbles you have in the bag.
11:53
That's going to influence what numbers you get out.
11:57
That's like if I took a survey of Lubbock, TX versus a survey
12:01
of Austin, TX, it might be the same state, but we're dealing
12:05
with a completely different type of mentality, different type of
12:09
environment and different geographical location.
12:12
Because if you don't know, Texas can be vastly different just
12:15
depending on how many hours you drive.
12:17
So when we're talking about Europe and and their
12:20
regulations, it's really funny because they keep climate at the
12:24
forefront of their mind. I will tell you this, and I'm
12:27
not going to say his name just for personal privacy sake, but
12:30
someone with the World Organization of Animal Health I
12:34
met in Amsterdam and I asked, hey, I hear all these climate
12:38
change initiatives. Do you think that this is
12:41
something that's sustainable? He looked me straight in the eye
12:44
and said, the US better not go down this route or else they're
12:47
going to end up like Europe. And Europe is on the road to
12:49
policing themselves in agriculture into a corner or
12:53
they're not going to be able to produce any agriculture.
12:55
Ireland has a regulation already in place to reduce methane
12:59
emissions by 30%. They had this magical green feed
13:03
that we probably have heard a lot about in the in the market
13:05
space as a seaweed based feed additive.
13:07
It was supposed to reduce methane emissions by 30%.
13:10
You know what it's at right now for on a good day.
13:13
So I asked this governmental research agency, this facility
13:17
that I toured at and off record, I said, hey, what happens if you
13:23
do not meet these standards? He goes, they will reduce the
13:25
number of animals for that percentage.
13:28
And this is not a fear mongering thing.
13:30
This is a reality. We're already seeing it.
13:33
Does the EU fly drones over people's property to count the
13:36
amount of cattle you have to match the manifest that you give
13:40
them? Yes, they fine you if you have
13:43
more or less animals than what you told the government.
13:46
Each beef animal has their own passport.
13:49
And I'm getting emotional about this because in my mind this is
13:52
insanity. Each animal has their own
13:55
passport. In Ireland, if an animal gets
13:57
traded or sold more than four times, it's discounted.
14:00
Meanwhile, our carcasses don't matter where they go as they get
14:03
graded as a quality product on the rail under the hide, as a
14:09
meat item for a consumer not over there because they say it
14:14
adds to the climate change because the animal has been
14:17
transported so many times. If you have an animal die, you
14:20
have to contact the government, pay the government to come out,
14:23
pay a veterinarian to come out, diagnose, do a knee cropsey,
14:25
make sure the animal dies of exact 'cause even if it's just
14:28
BRD. And if the animal dies or
14:30
something, then you have to pay the veterinarian and you have to
14:32
pay the government employee for their time and you also have to
14:34
pay the government for them to haul that carcass off to dispose
14:37
of it for you. There's no dead piles out there.
14:39
Vastly different. Vastly different.
14:42
And I'm not saying that what they're doing over there is
14:44
wrong by any stance. I am saying that that is no way
14:48
applicable to what we can do in the US and nor should it be even
14:52
attempted. It shouldn't be even a
14:53
conversation point of what they're doing.
14:56
Should it be implemented in the US?
14:58
Absolutely not. No.
15:01
The ranch I go to next week, how can you how can you have an
15:04
individual passport on every single animal and monitor that
15:09
kind of information? Unless you are a cow calf
15:12
operator that sells that animal, you retain ownership at a feed
15:16
yard and then it goes straight to the Packer after After that,
15:19
unless you have that type of vertical integration, which is
15:22
very few and far in between. We're talking about the
15:24
percentage of operations out there having a passport.
15:28
Do you know how many people here in the Panhandle just turn out
15:31
in, in New Mexico, Oklahoma? Let's just talk about Wyoming,
15:35
Montana, these vast range lands that they just turn their cattle
15:38
out. They gather them up once a year,
15:40
sort them off and then turn them back out.
15:43
Could you imagine having to keep track of each individual head
15:46
when you're dealing with 10/15/20 thousand animals on BLM
15:52
land, on leased land? Absolutely not.
15:55
So when we're looking at the applicability of what they're
15:59
doing in the EU and the USI firmly stand, no, absolutely
16:04
not. We can't go even think about
16:05
that route. The other thing about the EU is
16:09
their grading system is not what we have in the United States.
16:13
the United States by far has the most sustainable, most
16:16
consistent and quality product in the entire world.
16:19
There's a reason why other countries pay a premium for our
16:22
beef and why are ultra ultra ultra prime cuts often time goes
16:27
to other countries because they're willing to pay
16:30
outlandish money for our beef products.
16:32
Meanwhile, the consumers here are complaining about 767 dollar
16:36
ground beef. So why wouldn't we try to
16:38
maximize that dollar value as much as we can?
16:41
Our off cuts, our tongues, eyes, all that stuff goes to other
16:45
countries, right? But what people need to realize
16:47
in the United States is you will never eat a Argentinian, you'll
16:51
never eat a Brazilian steak. It's all ground beef.
16:54
So when we're talking about traceability, I'm very confident
16:58
in the USDA because we actually have a grading system that
17:02
judges A carcass based off of their quality.
17:05
And when I say quality, we're talking about Prime, Choice
17:07
Select in the EU. They don't have that.
17:10
They're not graded off of quality.
17:13
They have this thing called EUROP, which is basically yield
17:18
and confirmation of a carcass. I pulled 4 stakes out in the UK.
17:25
Sirloin's or their version of Sirloin, vastly different.
17:29
I saw a low prime, I saw a very low low choice.
17:35
I saw I think a select somewhere kind of like right there in the
17:41
middle and they were all priced the same.
17:44
So when we're looking at the, the quality of eating experience
17:47
and the consistency of eating experience, there's a reason why
17:50
the US is top dog. And so I, I, I'm very concerned
17:57
about all the climate stuff that's coming over from
17:59
dribbling over from the EU, from the European Space.
18:03
I'm very concerned about this whole carbon credit system and
18:06
any company that is, look, the way carbon credit systems work
18:10
is if I am Starbucks and I say, oh, we're to be carbon neutral
18:13
by 20-30. Starbucks doesn't have Jack crap
18:15
to do with carbon other than trucking their I don't think
18:20
it's great coffee to and from other places across the world.
18:24
So what they do is they contract with a company that companies
18:28
the middleman. That middleman then goes to
18:30
ranchers and say, hey, all the cattle that you have that
18:33
sequestering carbon into the soil.
18:35
Let's put a probe in there, let's measure it and then we'll
18:37
sell that into credits to the companies and then the companies
18:41
then buy the credits. So you can thank agriculture,
18:44
the exact industry that you're trying to attack for your
18:47
so-called carbon initiatives. And that's just an example.
18:50
And I'm sure somebody's going to probably correct me on the
18:53
stipulations of all that, but in a gist, if you've never heard of
18:56
that system, that's how fundamentally that works.
18:59
Sorry, I went on a tangent, but I just.
19:01
I. No, no, a rightful tangent,
19:06
right? Like a, a rightful tangent
19:08
because I agree with you. And the fact that like we got us
19:12
like we got to put an end to this at some point, right?
19:15
Like we can't keep on letting it dribble into the United States
19:19
and how we look at agriculture from an environmental
19:22
standpoint, I think that that is the biggest initiative push that
19:25
we're currently seeing with EU standards dribbling into
19:28
American agriculture. They're not going to have us
19:31
like the EU, like you said, we make a much better beef product,
19:36
much better beef product. So anything that they're doing
19:39
is not going to dribble in to our production of that animal,
19:43
right? Like we're still going to be
19:44
efficient. We're still going to bring a
19:46
great product to the table. But as far as hormone regulation
19:50
goes, as far as carbon credits go, as far as antibiotic use
19:55
goes, all of that extremely concerning.
19:59
And I think that it's extremely important that United States,
20:03
American producers understand the World Economic impact that
20:10
this will have on the United States agriculture and how we
20:14
need to sit here and say like, OK, no, like no, we, we can't
20:21
let another country. Push us into this, or let
20:26
another country's media push from that country push our
20:31
media, which pushes our consumers, which then pushes us
20:36
into a corner because they know that they're not going to sit
20:38
with us at a table and we're going to, as beef producers,
20:42
agree to these outlandish things.
20:44
But if they get our consumers to push us, we're pushed into a
20:48
corner. And I mean back to supply and
20:51
demand. We have to maintain demand for
20:53
beef and it's concerning what that could look like as far as
20:57
EU standards go in our and they're pushed to that.
21:00
It does. And I think that shows it's a
21:02
really great demonstration for the gap between our fundamental
21:07
base knowledge of our average consumer and our ability to
21:11
connect with consumers. And I think social media is a
21:13
really great way to Share your story.
21:15
Get out there. You and I both are in CBA Trail
21:17
Blazers and we are people that are very passionate about the
21:21
industry to the point where we want to help advocate and share
21:24
stories that for those who are either too afraid to get on
21:27
camera or who don't, who spend a lot of time on social media
21:31
because it can be very emotionally draining, especially
21:34
when you have like negative comments from people.
21:36
And the fact of the matter is, is when we're dealing with
21:38
social media, we're dealing with a regulatory system already.
21:41
And so I can't be filtered when I'm speaking in front of a group
21:46
of people. But you had to have that group
21:47
of people a time and a place. Social media removed that
21:51
requirement. And while yes, ideas can get
21:55
spread very quickly, unfortunately when you're
21:58
spending education and accurate information, it doesn't trend
22:03
spreading half truths, spreading fear mongering type of
22:06
information or flat out lies gets a lot.
22:11
The something that's emotional is a lot trendier and will get
22:14
more attention. And like I'm right now I'm
22:17
shadow banned off of TikTok because I use the hashtag future
22:21
of AG. Think about that.
22:22
And now granted, Iron Oak Tik Tok's Chinese own move past
22:26
that. I'm just saying I got in trouble
22:28
for advocating for our youth, saying hey, if you are in 4H and
22:32
FFA, you are the future of AG. You don't have to come from a
22:35
farming or agriculture background to be involved in the
22:38
agriculture space. I'm a prime example of that and
22:41
I got in trouble for this. So imagine what we're dealing
22:45
with when we start dealing with high sensitivity topics like the
22:47
words animal welfare, animal husbandry, welfare for longevity
22:53
of of a baby calf. Like when we talk about animal
22:58
welfare. I was in the Netherlands and I
22:59
went to a feed yard, their version of a feed yard.
23:02
So if you don't know, in the European Space, you cannot have
23:05
your cattle out on certain times a year, meaning they have to be
23:08
undercover in a barn, in a house with walls, with a slatted floor
23:12
that allows their urine and manure to go through the floor
23:15
to be collected into what they call a slurry tank.
23:17
Now here's the backwards methodology behind this.
23:20
They say it's to help prevent the contamination of their
23:24
waterways because they get a lot more water over there.
23:27
Sure, OK, cool, whatever, fine. But when you mix urea and.
23:32
Manure. Together, you know what you get?
23:36
You get an increased release of methane that you were putting
23:40
into a container that you were measuring.
23:43
And guess what? If your container gets full, you
23:45
can't just put it out anytime you want.
23:46
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
23:48
They're raining. So that is dog hair.
23:51
I am so sorry. I was there October 1st through
23:54
the 22nd. I was there at the cut off.
23:58
I was watching people frantically trying to spread
24:01
slurry at 2:00 in the morning because it's been raining the
24:06
last four days and they couldn't get their equipment out.
24:09
Make that make sense. Wouldn't it make a lot more
24:11
sense to wait until there's, I don't know, like 7-8 days of dry
24:15
weather and then put the slurry out?
24:17
Or how about this, have cattle out and not be required to be in
24:21
confinement. Also in the Netherlands they
24:23
don't, or at least the facility I went to does not castrate.
24:28
They import these cattle in and they're Belgian Blues.
24:32
They are a Piedmontese and if for those who don't know what
24:37
those those breeds are predominantly double muscled.
24:40
Not my favorite eating experience at all because double
24:44
muscled animals are nocturiously lower in intramuscular fat,
24:46
which by the way intramuscular fat over in Europe gets
24:50
discounted the lean beef. So imagine our system inversed
24:56
like your choice or your yeah your selected like canner would
25:02
get premium prime and select get discounted.
25:08
I need to go buy all of my. Steaks in the Netherlands.
25:12
Apparently not though. Apparently.
25:14
It's not like great quality but Dang what say that?
25:19
But I went to what the one of the largest grocery chains and I
25:22
talked to the butcher and he goes, I said, what's your
25:25
favorite cut? And he's like, I'll be right
25:27
back. And he goes, oh, I think that's
25:28
more of a Scottish accent, but whatever, he goes in the back,
25:30
grabs a flat iron, comes out, he's like this, I love this.
25:35
It's USA. And sure enough, I said the
25:38
product of the USA beautiful flat iron steak wood grade
25:42
prime. And I was like like, I thought
25:46
y'all didn't like intramuscular fat.
25:47
He's like not if it come from USA, it come from USA.
25:51
Premium price premium cut first thing sold out.
25:55
Interesting. First thing sold out.
25:57
Oh, this whole, oh, we won't you eat US beef over here.
26:01
I'm like hunky Dory. That's not that's not true at
26:04
all. And so, yeah, when you were
26:08
talking about trends and things like that, we're talking about
26:10
like a lot of regenerative agriculture, right?
26:13
How to be more environmentally friendly.
26:15
I'm very, very nervous about these labels.
26:19
And that's why I was so anti regen AG.
26:22
Not to say that I didn't understand the practice, but in
26:25
my mind I'm like, you are harming the information and the
26:28
message that we're delivering to consumers.
26:31
The AG industry is the only industry that's like 2 rats in a
26:35
box that will eat each other. We fight each other based off of
26:40
methodology, ideology, locations, geographical
26:45
differences. Just because What works for you
26:48
in Virginia doesn't mean it's going to work for Florida or
26:52
West TX or Oregon or Kansas or California, Nebraska.
26:59
All these places are vastly different in forges, rainfall,
27:01
topography, restrictions of government in terms of state
27:05
legislation. So just because the shoe fits
27:09
your foot doesn't mean it's going to fit everybody else's.
27:12
And I think we really need to start supporting each other and
27:15
stop fear mongering each other. I, I tell people this all the
27:18
time and with 0 regrets. If you use fear mongering to
27:22
sell your product, you are no better than our animal rights
27:25
activist. Because I'm seeing what's
27:26
happening in Europe and that's exactly what we don't want.
27:30
Now the consumers, you know, I didn't have a bad eating
27:34
experience over there, but you could definitely taste the
27:36
flavor difference and tender and the texture, the texture was
27:41
gritty, like it was not my cup of tea, but thankfully I was
27:46
around people that were really good cooks.
27:48
So the flavor was decent, but you could taste the difference
27:51
and you really could. And I'm just thinking it's more
27:55
expensive over there too. I broke it down of a ground
27:59
beef. I was in England and everybody's
28:03
making fun of me because I use MSO.
28:05
Look, M&S was just a average of what I found.
28:08
So my, my hobby when I travel is to go to different grocery
28:11
stores and like, check it out, right?
28:13
I broke it down. It is significantly the average
28:16
more expensive in Europe for ground beef than it is here.
28:19
And part of that reason is their labeling system.
28:22
Part of that reason is these cattle are having to be alive
28:26
longer. So they are less sustainable
28:29
because they're alive longer, because they can't use implants
28:32
and they can't and they don't feed out cattle.
28:36
Also, they don't to my earlier tangent because I feel like
28:39
we're just on Emma tangent now. This feed lot didn't didn't
28:42
castrate. And they said, oh, it's for
28:43
animal welfare is is to is to prevent pain when they're young
28:48
babies. I'm like, brother, don't tell me
28:50
that and then take me to your hospital pen that you have pens
28:53
and pens and pens of bowls that are bruised up, beat up, bloody
28:58
because they fought each other, because, you know, they have
29:00
this thing called, oh, I don't know, testosterone.
29:02
You've ever been around middle schoolers and high schoolers,
29:05
they get rowdy. You put them in a confined
29:08
space. And it's not like us in the
29:10
United States where our feed lot system way better welfare than
29:14
over there. And I look, I again, I'm not
29:17
still throwing stones at the places that I went to.
29:20
I appreciate you letting me in. I am just saying that what
29:23
they're doing would not work here because our requirements
29:26
from an animal welfare standpoint is a, most of our
29:30
animals in the feed yard are on the male side are going to be
29:34
steer. So they're castrated males.
29:35
So we remove that desire to fight.
29:38
We typically will have a similar type of cattle together.
29:42
And we have this thing called requirement of bunk space and
29:45
area space. You can't fit 30 cows or these
29:50
30 bulls, double muscled bulls into a small pen space.
29:55
If then our feed yard managers were to see pictures of that,
29:59
they'd be like, we would be shut down so fast.
30:02
We would be shut down so fast and less productive.
30:05
They're standing knee deep in their own manure.
30:07
They try to clean it out, but they can only clean it out so
30:09
many times. So this whole preaching of we're
30:13
more sustainable, meanwhile your cattle alive longer, they can't
30:16
grow as fast. We are the top leader in terms
30:20
of beef production per head, pounds of per head and we have a
30:24
Dang good quality product. I'm not buying the
30:27
sustainability. I'm not buying the environmental
30:30
because when your animal's alive longer, it uses more water, it
30:34
puts out more methane, it puts out more manure, more urea.
30:38
When your animal's alive longer, it's using more natural
30:42
resources versus ours. Not so much I, I, I, I will die
30:49
on the stance that we are the most sustainable beef product in
30:52
the a beef system in the world. We have the highest quality beef
30:55
system in the world and we have the most, we have the the, the
31:02
most safe product in the world because we have a equal grading
31:06
system across our country. And even when we're importing
31:09
beef from other countries, we have boots on the ground from
31:11
USDA ensuring that those other locations are abiding by US
31:15
standards. Yeah.
31:17
Absolutely. So Emma, I feel like.
31:20
I'm dominating this conversation.
31:21
No, you're. Good.
31:23
I am soaking it all in because this is an experience I haven't
31:27
been able to have yet. So although soaking it all in
31:31
energy is like. Yeah.
31:37
So as we round. Out this episode and talking
31:40
about just your experience in the EU and how it comes back to
31:46
the United States and the American producer.
31:48
Like if you're talking to an American producer today, like,
31:51
what's your, like, final take on all of that just to kind of
31:55
round us out. Yeah.
31:58
So despite the E US claim of being more sustainable and and
32:03
being a higher traceability product, I I disagree.
32:08
Now they do have a requirement of labeling over there when it
32:11
comes to animal origin. They've got two different types
32:15
of labeling System. 1 is called a Geo protected geographical
32:21
indication and the other one is a protected origin of
32:24
destination origin, destined or protected destination of origin,
32:29
something like that. So they do have labeling systems
32:32
over there that are required. What's what's backwards is that
32:36
we hear this big push of reinstating M Cool.
32:39
Look, M Cool was not disbanded by the US, We were forced to by
32:43
Canada and Mexico. Think about that.
32:45
Think about that. The US wants and there is a
32:48
voluntary country of original labeling.
32:50
For those who don't know, mandatory country of origin
32:53
labeling in Cool is something that we tried to implement and
32:57
we we wanted to give you more traceability of different
33:02
locations on a mandatory level like the EU, but the World Trade
33:07
Organization said no. So we had to stop that program.
33:11
But Despite that, I still have confidence in our product
33:15
because the USDA was forced to step up their regulations and
33:19
their requirements to a whole new level.
33:22
They were doing a great job before, but even more so now
33:25
because it wasn't mandatory. We go in, I say we as like the
33:28
USDA goes in and ensures they you are getting a consistent
33:33
product. I have full confidence in our
33:36
farmers and our ranchers and in our packing and grading system
33:41
than I do in the EU because I know that when I buy a prime or
33:46
a high, high choice steak, I know what I'm getting.
33:51
I know I can cook it the same almost every single time and
33:54
it's going to be the same eating experience.
33:56
I know what I'm getting in that package over there.
33:59
It depends on what order that you're picking your steak.
34:02
And if you're a consumer that's not educated, you're not going
34:05
to get the same eating experience.
34:06
So beef prices are high right now as they should be high
34:10
because that just shows you on how much of A demand we have for
34:13
our product here in the United States.
34:15
Yeah. Absolutely.
34:16
I couldn't think of a better way to round it all out.
34:19
And I think just going back on what Emma said earlier, really
34:22
focusing on the sustainability aspects, all of the quality and
34:26
control in all of those aspects. It's really important as an
34:29
American producer to understand what's going on on a global
34:31
standpoint and how that affects us as American producers as
34:35
well. So Emma, thank you for your
34:37
time, your insight, and just sharing some of your story
34:40
today. I really appreciate it to all of
34:43
our listeners. I have all of Emma's links
34:45
linked down below. If you loved this conversation
34:47
today, Emma has been talking about it a lot on all of her
34:50
social medias, on her YouTube on all of the things.
34:53
So make sure you go check all of those things out down below.
34:55
And as always, thank you for listening to another episode of
34:59
the Cattle USA Daily Podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan
35:02
with our guest Emma Kaufman today.
35:04
Have a great rest of your day y'all and we will see you all
35:07
tomorrow.