What now?
We need to move forward.
What do ranchers need to increase sustainable (versus one-off) beef supply growth?
Time, more than anything, to build their herds.
What can politicians contribute to the resolution?
Damn little. Trump reducing tariffs on imported beef may help the consumer, but it is a balancing act to not reduce prices to the point that ranchers cannot anticipate enough of an ROI to build their herds.
What can investors contribute to the resolution?
I'm not sure money is the problem. It wasn't lack of money, but lack of forage that got us here.
What can environmental scientists contribute to help make grazing lands more drought tolerant, more drought resistant, and to have them recover from drought in less time?
In my experience, the environmental scientists have been part of the problem. Efforts to increase availability of water on grazing lands have been met with opposition, even though the increased availability of water benefits all species. Remember, it was the environmental scientists who wanted to put a methane tax on cattle, even though they (large, grazing animals that move in herds) only generally fill the ecological niche left by the reduction in numbers of the Bison that formerly occupied that niche. (Maybe buffalo don't fart...right.)
During drought, cattle feed will become more expensive as demand increases and drought decreases supply. Would there be benefit to establishing a Strategic Cattle Feed Reserve just as we have a Strategic Petroluem Reserve?
Most of that feed would be in the form of hay, which loses its nutritional value and is subject to mold and mildew, rendering it unfit for fodder. It would be difficult to store. Usually not all grazing areas a re affected the same, and those which get good rainfall can sell their surplus to areas where fodder is scarce. Still, that can be prohibitively expensive, hence herd reductions.
Would eliminating ethanol mandates decrease food and feed inflation?
I'm not sure how eliminating the mandates would change the inflation profile, corn is a 'finishing' feed, to put fat on the animal and increase marbling in the meat. But eliminating the mandates would make all my small engines happier.
If it happens once, it's happened before, and it will happen again.
yep.
Keeping the nation fed is a core responsibility of Government. Not sexy, but necessary.
Actually, it isn't the government's job to put food on your table. The USDA does a lot to estimate needs, compare that to current and projected production, and sort out how much is available for export or needed for import (working with projections, which are really just best guesses based on past performance).
It's complicated, but the Government isn't responsible for keeping us fed, that's on us.
