Riding Herd “The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” – JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
November 15, 2019 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 61 • No. 10
Beyond Leather BY LEE PITTS
When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
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f cave paintings and the Flintstones are to be believed, humanoids have been wearing the skins of animals to keep warm and for modesty ever since your kinfolk first walked out of the pond scum. Archeologists have found leather shoes that are 12,000 years old that are in better shape than many of those found in teenage closets today. In more recent times the preferred leather has always come from beef and dairy cattle but if pundits, markets, animal rightists and the millennial generation are to be believed, in the near future leather will be as popular as fur coats at a PETA convention. According to the fake news on TV and in urban newspapers, cattlemen not only have to worry about fake meat, now they have to worry about the most prized byproduct of cattle being replaced by fake leather. What’s next, fake footballs, basketballs, baseballs, fake rawhide chew bones for your dog, fake saddles, knock off bomber jackets, fake purses, fake wallets and wristwatch bands, and fake gloves? Will teenage pants fall even lower without leather belts? Perish the thought!
used to say, ‘We haven’t buried any hides yet.’ Now they can’t say that.” It seems we have entered an alternative retail universe where misguided eco-friendly consumers can choose between “ethical shoes” from a company called Terra Plana, Beyond Skin’s shoes made from fabric, Bourgeois Boheme footwear made from a mix of recycled products, a host of faux leather products made from petrochemicals, leather alternatives made from the same plastic that’s used in plastic pipe, and even some fake shoes made from fruit peels. I kid you not. An August story in the LA Times written by Lydia Mulvany and Denitsa Tsekova pretty much summed up the state of today’s leather industry in the title of their story called “America Is Obsessed with Beef. But
No Use For Hides, So Leather Prices Plunge.” I’ve written columns shorter than their title but that doesn’t mean they’re not right on the money. Remarkably, the urban reporters seem to have a good grasp on the subject. “U.S. consumers are eating more beef, more than they have in a decade,” they wrote. “But a byproduct of this carnivorous hankering is piling up, unloved and unwanted. Shoppers who once coveted leather jackets and shoes are instead scooping up cheaper, synthetic alternatives, reflecting a growing ambivalence toward this former staple of American closets. The glut of cowhides has caused prices to plummet, rendering many worthless. And just as the American love for meat has caught on around the globe, so too has the abandonment
of leather, from clothing to car seats. Hides are even starting to go to landfills. “Just five years ago, prices soared after a drought shrank the U.S. herd to a six-decade low. Leather outpriced itself, forcing shoe and clothing designers to cut the material from their products. Combine that with the rise of athleisure and the growing popularity of “vegan clothing,” and one can see why demand hasn’t come back,” wrote the reporters. “With piles of 100-pound cowhides accumulating all over the country, unused and unsold, leather makers are warning of a looming commercial disaster. Hides have often accounted for 50% of the value of the animal’s byproducts, and byproducts can be 10% of a steer’s value or more. Hides from cows, which are lower quality than those of steers, have fallen to only about 5% of the value of all byproducts — worth less than tongues and cheek meat. It’s not even 1% of the value of a live cow.” The writers quoted Lowell Carson, owner of the Double L Ranch in Altamont, N.Y., who’s been working in the meatpacking industry for more than 30 continued on page two
I Kid You Not
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
In the dog days of summer this year some meatpackers were getting as little as four dollars for the hide from a branded cow. Five years ago the same hide would fetch $81! According to Vera Dordick, CEO and publisher of Hidenet who addressed the slumping leather industry, “It’s not just the U.S. industry that’s suffering. It’s a worldwide crisis. Some people
Hemp & Cricket Burgers Are Coming for Beyond Meat More plant proteins set to hit menus as critics question peas BY ASHLEY ROBINSON & LYDIA MULVANY / BLOOMBERG
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f you thought pea protein was weird, you might want to sit down for this. The next wave of alternative burgers could be made from hemp, mung beans or even crickets. As the plant boom attracts consumers and investors, the pea -- the preferred protein source for companies like Beyond Meat Inc. -- is facing some challengers. Critics say the legume isn’t the nutritional powerhouse that proponents claim it is, while others say alternatives could offer better taste. “Pea protein does have one weakness and that is that it’s not actually nutritionally equivalent to the protein that’s in dairy -- it’s not even equivalent to the protein that’s in soy,” said Johann Tergesen, chief executive officer of Burcon NutraScience, which is opening a plant-protein facility in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Peas also have a strong “bean-like” taste along with a chalky texture, he said. More Americans are being described as flexitarians, who buy both meat and alternatives, according to Meagan Nelson, an associate director at consumer researcher Nielsen. Veggie-burger sellers Beyond Meat and Impossible
Foods Inc. have landed deals with the likes of Denny’s Corp. and Burger King to take their products mainstream. Analysts at Jefferies estimate the alt-meat market could rise to $240 billion over the next two decades. While peas have captured headlines, producers of other crops are eager to get in on the action. Your next burger could end up being made from one of these burgeoning alternatives:
Canola Pea Craze Lures Second Processor to Manitoba to Open in 2020 Protein powder made from canola at Burcon NutraScience in Winnipeg on July 15, 2019. Canola is usually processed into vegetable oil or meal used in animal feed. But canola meal has a high protein content that can now make it attractive for human consumption as well. Vancouver, B.C.-based Burcon NutraScience has two market-ready canola proteins that are high in amino acids, methionine and cysteine, which other proteins like pea are low in. Other companies are also working on canola proteins, with Calgary-based Botaneco Inc. having recently received funding through the continued on page three
by LEE PITTS
Takin’ It To The Streets
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e’re all supposed to have gone global by now. If you want a new computer you phone a call center in India which passes on your order to a multinational corporation in China who uses chips made in Taiwan, monitors made in Korea, put together by Bangladesh workers in a plant in Singapore and shipped on Iranian flagged cargo ships to Long Beach where Mexican workers put it on a German owned DHL delivery van for delivery to your house in Little Italy or Chinatown. That’s the very definition of globalization and it’s basically the same blueprint for the food you eat. Melons will come from Mexico, citrus from Chile, avocados from foreign corporate farms, beef from a Brazilian owned firm with plants in Australia, and lamb freighted in from New Zealand. Your food will be delivered by an Uber chauffeur driving a Volvo made in Sweden because folks don’t have the time to shop any more. The American family farm is supposedly dead and if you aren’t the absolute low-cost producer you’d better be thinking about your exit strategy. If you produce anything that involves labor it’s already too late. Better learn to speak Chinese and make sure your passport is up to date. And this all makes perfect economic sense. So, how do you explain the burgeoning farmer’s market movement where busy people of all ages wander down streets filled with fruits, vegetables and even meat that was grown just down the road? Folks have made a party out of buying food and are going gaga over locally grown garbanzos and gouda. “Going to market” is the way people in third world countries shop but it’s not supposed to be this way in 21st century America. It’s certainly not convenient and yet there are a dozen towns in my county and every single one has a farmer’s market at least one day per week. And every one is busy. In an age gone goofy over globalism how do you explain that? Maybe it’s because people are tired of tasteless tomatoes, pithy oranges and hamburgers put together by an international committee
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