{"id":71848,"date":"2024-06-13T05:57:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T05:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/13\/montana-has-more-cows-than-people-why-are-locals-eating-beef-from-brazil\/"},"modified":"2024-06-13T05:57:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T05:57:05","slug":"montana-has-more-cows-than-people-why-are-locals-eating-beef-from-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/13\/montana-has-more-cows-than-people-why-are-locals-eating-beef-from-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Has More Cows Than People. Why Are Locals Eating Beef From Brazil?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Montana<\/div>


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\u201cMaking It Work\u201d is a series is about small-business owners striving to endure hard times.<\/em><\/p>\n

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While many people can conjure up romantic visions of a Montana ranch \u2014 vast valleys, cold streams, snow-capped mountains \u2014 few understand what happens when the cattle leave those pastures. Most of them, it turns out, don\u2019t stay in Montana.<\/p>\n

Even here, in a state with nearly twice as many cows<\/a> as people, only around 1 percent of the beef purchased by Montana households is raised and processed locally, according to estimates from Highland Economics<\/a>, a consulting firm. As is true in the rest of the country, many Montanans instead eat beef from as far away as Brazil<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a common fate of a cow that starts out on Montana grass: It will be bought by one of the four dominant meatpackers \u2014 JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Marfrig \u2014 which process 85 percent<\/a> of the country\u2019s beef; transported by a company like Sysco or US Foods, distributors with a combined value of over $50 billion; and sold at a Walmart or Costco, which together take in roughly half of America\u2019s food dollars<\/a>. Any ranchers who want to break out from this system \u2014 and, say, sell their beef locally, instead of as anonymous commodities crisscrossing the country \u2014 are Davids in a swarm of Goliaths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n