• Paradachshund@lemmy.today
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    12 hours ago

    Why is tube meat always the cheapest? Surely you could put any quality of meat you want in there, but it’s always the cheapest.

    • papalonian@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Cheaper to package. They can just have a crazy long tube of meat going through a roll of film that gets tied off by a machine and they’ve got a ready-to-sell product. The chunks that come in the little trays have to get chopped, placed on the tray, then wrapped (which is probably still 99% automated, but more steps, more machinery, and more actual packaging)

        • papalonian@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Good point. My two guesses would be:

          1. Tube meat is commonly associated with “cheap”/bulk meat, so for marketing purposes, the individual packs may sell better.

          2. I understand that the more the ground meat is handled, the taste/ texture can suffer. The long meat tube method may subject the meat to more unfavorable handling, ie the ties at the end compressing the meat more than an individual package.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    1 day ago

    Ah yes, the Costco 10lbs of ground beef. The cheapest way to highly bioavailable protein and nutrition (around $2.50 a lbs). If they don’t have it out, you can always knock on the butcher window and ask for it. They often sell it to their business customers.

      • nomy@lemmy.zip
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        8 hours ago

        We’d take one of these, half-freeze it so it was easy to work with and just slice it into burgers. Package them up in whatever quantity you like and you have like a months worth of hamburgers.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Although somebody somewhere will eventually pay the cost it has on the environment, generally red meat is the worst option in that regard.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        1 day ago

        Ruminants have existed before civilization, they will exist after civilization. They are part of the normal biocycle. Critical for top soil development. They are a absolute requirement in nature.

        • eshrekshion@piefed.social
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          1 day ago

          Wild ruminants sure but our burger bovine hardly represent the historical precedent. Factory farming is not restoring our topsoil unfortunately. Actually beef demand is leading to a large amount of deforestation.

          • jet@hackertalks.com
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            1 day ago

            Agreed on factory farming : including monocroping

            Red meat isn’t the big evil, it’s unsustainable farming methods.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Cows outnumber all other mammals on earth, excluding humans, and a large majority of cropland is dedicated to feeding them, maybe we can have a set number of them?

          • jet@hackertalks.com
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            1 day ago

            How about: all cows in captivity must live on pastures and can’t be fed grains?

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              You’ll need something like 3,151,600,000 Acres of fair quality grazing land, and funny you mention that because I recently heard news of people putting into place a plan sort of like yours, image attached below.

              Look, I’m not telling people to give up meat. I love meat. I’d buy the bulk burger and freeze most of it without a second thought, turn some into my specialty summer sausage to share with friends and family. But I think people should be conscious of the costs of the meat and limit their intake.

              • jet@hackertalks.com
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                1 day ago

                Look, I’m not telling people to give up meat. I love meat.

                Your downvotes of my comments in this thread paint a mixed message.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        19 hours ago

        Kirkland (Costco) brand products tend to have very high standards and chains of custody.

        I.e. Kirkland olive oil is probably the only reputable way to get unadulterated olive oil in the US. Every time I’ve read about people testing olive oils in stores, Kirkland is always authentic

        • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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          15 hours ago

          The meat is nasty. So many recalls on top of how low quality and bad tasting it is. Just the worst.

          Edit: just to be clear in March of this year Costco was yet again found to be using the “worst ranked” supplier.

          You can downvote me as much as you want, and I like Costco, but mass meat producers are never going to be quality. This picture with the organic Kirkland beef packs? Those in particular are just awful.

          Go to your butcher, find out what cows are raised and where they are sourced. If that sounds good have them grind you a nice fresh burger blend.