• Politics

Races To Watch: Montana’s Bullock is Bullish in the Senate Battle of the Steves

• beef
• China
• climate change
• Montana
• ranchers
• Senate

Montana’s Senate race is a toss-up, according to the Cook Political Report, because the popular Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, has managed to put incumbent Senator Steve Daines on the defensive over a deal he orchestrated in which Montana ranchers were to supposed sell $200m in beef to China’s second-largest company, JD.com, and the company was going to build a $100m processing plant in Montana. 

• Food

A New Model For Sustainable Agriculture: Local Co-ops

• beef
• belch
• cattle
• climate change
• cooperatiive
• industrial farming
• meatpacking
• ranchers

Last summer, 16 Bay Area ranchers joined forces to form the Bay Area Ranchers Co-op. BAR-C, a start-up hoping to challenge the unsustainable and monopolistic corporate meatpacking industry.  

Why this matters: Changing the food industry in the U.S. will be a key to tackling the climate challenge.

• Forests

Brazil Under Fire As Amazon Burning Is Connected to Soy and Beef Exports

• Amazon
• beef
• Bolsonaro
• Brazil
• deforestation
• environment
• science
• soy beans

A recent study published in Science found that a significant percentage of beef and soy exported from Brazil to the EU is connected with illegal deforestation. As YaleE360 reported  that “as much as 22 percent of soy and 60 percent of beef…back to illegal tree felling and fires in the Amazon and Cerrado regions.”

Why This Matters: The study’s lead author Raoni Rajão said, “Until now, agribusiness and the Brazilian government have claimed that they cannot monitor the entire supply chain, nor distinguish the legal from the illegal deforestation.” This new study undercuts that idea, showing that Brazil can (and must) monitor agribusiness’ connections to illegal deforestation.