http://www.nysun.com/article/60032</p><h1 style="margin-top: 10px">Where's the Beef, Indeed: A Steak Shortage Hits N.Y.</h1> By CHRISTOPHER FAHERTY Special to the Sun August 8, 2007</p> <span class="article_small"> The country's effort to move away from a dependence on foreign oil and embrace green initiatives appears to be behind a change in one of New York's purest traditions, the menu of the classic steakhouse.</p> The production of ethanol, which is made from corn, is one major reason classic cuts of prime beef are becoming more and more expensive, an analyst at the cattle market analysis firm Cattle-Fax, Tod Kalous, said.</p> "It's getting worse," the owner of Ben Benson's Steakhouse, Ben Benson, said. "The problems the ranchers are having are making it more difficult because feed is getting more expensive."</p> Brooklyn's Peter Luger Steakhouse. now serves a rib eye. On some nights at Ben Benson's in Midtown, diners can order buffalo steak. The Old Homestead of the meatpacking district serves one of the city's best Kobe burgers.</p> The new menu items at some city steakhouses are a result of an increase in the price of top-notch beef and a decrease in its availability. Corn is the primary feed for cattle that produce USDA-grade prime beef. Corn is also the main ingredient for what many believe is the fuel of the future, ethanol. The production of ethanol has not only increased the demand for corn, it has made harvests more profitable for farmers, who receive the fruits of government subsidies when it is sold to ethanol producers.</p> Even with the price of prime beef so high, and with Mr. Kalous predicting continued high prices, most steakhouses have yet to pass on the brunt of the drought to the customer.</p> </p> I love steak. Had gone to Palm, Wolfgangs, Smith and Wollensky all within 2 weeks. This sucks. </p> -Petey</p></span></p>
I'm not much of a steak guy. I really would rather have a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings. In fact, my favorite breakfast is a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. We're not in any danger of a bacon shortage, are we?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DolfanDale)</div><div class='quotemain'>I'm not much of a steak guy. I really would rather have a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings. In fact, my favorite breakfast is a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. We're not in any danger of a bacon shortage, are we?</div></p> Ever have a kobe burger? It not, don't. It's not worth the extra bucks as the marblized fat is dripped away. I'm a big fan of burgers too.</p> -Petey</p>
If you tell me I can have a car that runs on corn or reasonably priced steak, Ill take the steak everytime....but, they are missing one thing, if they really can make decent engines that run on ethonol, and the price of fuel does go down, then the price of beef(and most other goods) should go down as well, since it all has to be shipped....but to be clear:</p> </p> </p> <font color="#000080"><font size="7">BEEF > Environment</font></font> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (TheBeef)</div><div class='quotemain'> If you tell me I can have a car that runs on corn or reasonably priced steak, Ill take the steak everytime....but, they are missing one thing, if they really can make decent engines that run on ethonol, and the price of fuel does go down, then the price of beef(and most other goods) should go down as well, since it all has to be shipped....but to be clear:</p> </p> </p> <font color="#000080"><font size="7">BEEF > Environment</font></font> </p> </div></p> ... no doubt!</p> -Petey</p>
I read an article predicting this and a few other issues some months ago. There is only so much corn that can be grown and using it for fuels raises the price for corn which is a staple of not only cattle, but also many, many poor people in Central America and North America.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'>I read an article predicting this and a few other issues some months ago. There is only so much corn that can be grown and using it for fuels raises the price for corn which is a staple of not only cattle, but also many, many poor people in Central America and North America.</div>hm. i know what i'm doin when i get older.</p> </p> say hello to peg, the corn farmer!</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'>I read an article predicting this and a few other issues some months ago. There is only so much corn that can be grown and using it for fuels raises the price for corn which is a staple of not only cattle, but also many, many poor people in Central America and North America.</div></p> </p> There's not enough acrage in the USA to grow enough corn or other crops to make all the ethanol we need to run our autos.</p> It's also dubious that you actually get more energy out of ethanol than it takes to make it in the first place - it needs to be refined/purified through distillation or other processes that require energy.</p> The use of ethanol has the benefit of making little/no pollution when used as fuel for cars. The downside is that as govt. has mandated more and more of our fuel be ethanol, the land used to grow crops for food is repurposed, and the law of supply/demand drives up the price of things like bread and milk for everyone. </p> It's also true of all renewable or alternative energy sources that you have to put in more energy than you get out - and that energy has to come from somewhere (e.g. burning coal or fossil fuels). That is, it takes more energy to make a solar panel and batteries than that panel will generate in its lifetime. It costs more to make windmills and the turbines than they will generate in their lifetime. And so on.</p> It's both intuitive and blatantly obvious if you understand the basic laws of physics. You can't create energy from nothing or through chemical reactions. The only relatively clean source of energy that you get out more energy than you put in is nuclear (chain reaction).</p> And yeah, I'm a huge fan of nuclear energy - once you look past all the scare tactics, you get a lot of energy out of a small footprint and the technology has been here for decades to properly deal with the waste (it's only issue) quite safely. I live close enough to Yucca Mountain and I'd gladly take all the waste and dispose of it there, in my back yard so to speak.</p> </p>
Nuclear Energy is the key to everything....and its not dangerous....the funny thing about energy is that its finite, it cant be created or lost, just transfered....it can be stored and released, but not destroyed....so you have to think "outside the box" if you want to solve our energy "crisis"....Nuclear energy is the most effeicent way to take stored energy and harness it to our purposes....if we get past its stigma, its the answer
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DolfanDale)</div><div class='quotemain'>I'm not much of a steak guy. I really would rather have a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings. In fact, my favorite breakfast is a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. We're not in any danger of a bacon shortage, are we?</div> I'm with you on this one.
