Current Cattle Markets Daily Headlines, February 17, 2021

Bill Gates: climate change disaster

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-gates-climate-change-disaster-60-minutes-2021-02-14/

• Bill Gates has spent the last several decades investing almost 2 billion in some of the world’s toughest problems; global poverty, disease and the coronavirus pandemic.
• Gates has now turned his focus to climate change. Along with the majority of scientists, Gates believes that if something isn’t done about climate change, a climate disaster will soon occur.
  • Nonetheless, he thinks it is possible to avoid this disaster through scientific breakthroughs, technological innovations and global cooperation in the next thirty years.
• Innovations will have to be found for every aspect of modern life; manufacturing, agriculture and transport because all these things release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
• According to Gates, the U.S. must lead the world getting to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He fully supports President Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement.
  • He would like to see the current administration increase their budget for climate and clean energy research to $35 billion a year.
• Gates has already invested $2 billion in new green technologies, and plans to spend several billion more.
• Gates invested in both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat because cows account for approximately 4 percent of all greenhouse gases. He would like to see meat consumption move away from traditional meat and instead be mostly plant-based meat substitutes.
  • With that comes the issue that farming practices emit gases to grow vegetables.
    • To counteract this, Gates has invested in a company that has created an entirely new food source, Nature’s Fynd; a company that uses fungi’s to create sausage and yogurt.

 

Rich countries should only eat synthetic beef, says Bill Gates

https://news.sky.com/story/rich-countries-should-eat-synthetic-beef-says-bill-gates-12219763

• While speaking to the MIT Technology Review magazine, Bill Gates said that all rich countries should be consuming 100 percent synthetic beef.
• Gates believes that livestock pose a “very difficult” problem. He stated that people can get used to the different taste of synthetic beef instead of traditional beef, and according to the synthetic beef companies, they plan to make the fake beef taste even better over time.
• Gates would like to see regulation put in place to totally shift demand to synthetic beef. He said there are a pile of bills that are calling for synthetic beef to be basically labeled as “lab garbage” in order to be sold. Gates sees nothing wrong with labeling synthetic beef as beef.

 

Historic cold cuts slaughter

https://www.thebeefread.com/2021/02/16/historic-cold-cuts-slaughter/

• The dangerous cold that has stretched all the way down to the Gulf Coast has maxed out demand on electricity.
  • Due to this, some packing plants in Texas and Kansas are being forced to cancel operations for a few days.
    • Monday’s slaughter was estimated at 92,000 head, down from 114,000 head the same day a week ago. Tuesday’s slaughter is expected to be somewhere around that 92,000 head mark.
  • Reduced slaughter will contribute to cutout prices continuing to climb, as they are already historically high.
    • One year ago this week, the choice cutout averaged $207/cwt. By the end of the day Tuesday, choice was at $234.77/cwt.
      • Packer margins have been above $300 per head for the last three weeks, and they will most likely see that profit again this week.

 

Boxed beef prices

www.nationalbeefwire.com

• Choice boxed beef: $234.77 (+2.33)
• Select boxed beef: $222.03 (+0.62)