Mississippi meat eaters are faced with consuming meat from as far away as Mexico. This is due to the lack of any organic beef producers in the state. This meat has also been through acid washes, freezing and other treatments to endure the travel without contracting diseases.
Buck Cunningham, owner of L.B.’s Meat Market, said that not all of his beef comes from the same place, but a majority of it is Hereford beef out of Kansas City, Missouri. Transporting beef into Oxford is a better business plan than buying local cows, according to Cunningham.
“If I bought local, I would have to buy the whole cow. Out of a whole cow, you get about two beef tenderloins, which makes about eight filet minions, and I would have to sell 40 pounds of ground beef for every filet minion that I sold, and that is a ratio that would not allow me to stay open,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham sells between 12 and 15 beef tenderloins per week. He, along with the entire country, is battling to supply beef demand while also trying to eat healthier and more local. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 25.8 billion pounds of beef were produced in 2013, and 10 percent of that beef was exported. An exact figure for the beef consumption of Lafayette County was unavailable.
According to the USDA website, ers.usda.gov, “roughly 8-20 percent” of American meat is imported from other countries, a majority coming from Canada and Mexico.
“It’s demand; it’s because of the customers. If you want all local beef organically raised close to home, you’re going to have to eat a cow as it’s broken down, and you can’t worry about the price. It will be about a time and a half more expensive,” Cunningham said.
Ronnie Keisling, meat manager at Kroger, said that most of Kroger’s beef is from the United States, but some comes from Canada.
Wal-Mart’s red meat supply is even more diverse, coming from all over the states, Canada and Mexico, according to Meat Sales Associate Ryan Dehm. He said that he knows some customers have a problem with not having a local beef selection, but that the price and constant availability is traded for that luxury.
“It’s Wal-Mart; you get what you pay for, you know. It is what it is,” Dehm said.
The transportation of beef is regulated by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and according to its website, all meat transported and sold in the United States is federally inspected. The FSIS oversees inspections for the USDA under the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
The FSIS also says that in the case of ground beef, it is more susceptible to disease-carrying bacteria because it is grounded, meaning that there is more surface area to be infected—E. coli standing as one of the most dangerous.
Freezing the product is necessary to keep the bacteria from entering, making it impossible for people to really get fresh beef when it is being shipped in from all over the country and from other countries. Most of the time, fully cooking the meat will dissolve the bacteria altogether.
Precautions are taken to reduce bacteria, according to the FSIS. Organic acid washes, water washes, steam- pasteurization, steam vacuuming and other antimicrobials reduced the risk of bacteria and made American beef safer for consumption.
The health advantages of eating locally grown, organic beef and organic meat, in general, revolve around major differences in how the animals are handled and fed while being raised for meat, according to CNN Health. Organic cows cannot be given antibiotics or growth hormones.
They are also fed an organic, grass-based diet, which is seen as a more sustainable way to feed cattle; more energy is used to grow and transport grain than grass; as well as a healthier, less fatty alternative to grain-based cattle feeds.
The disadvantages to organic meat are primarily the price but also the constant demand of the American people for beef. From what was available on the Mississippi state website and on Google, no organic meat market exists in the state, giving the population in Oxford no other choice than to eat transported meat.
The healthiest options for Oxford meat eaters are to fully cook all beef by bringing it to 160 degrees before consumption and to try to buy as local as possible. The less travel time means less chance for bacterial infection.
