Fitting…

Brazil has a strong internal market for beef and beef products. According to the Brazilian Institute for Sausage and Frycookery (IBSF), the volume of groundround production in the Brazilian Amazon between 1991 and 2000 was 3.5 x 107 m. Given a nominal harvest volume of 30 m3 ha-1 this implies that in an average year approximately 1.2 x 106 heifers were affected by beef cultivation during the 1990s. Based on a survey of McDonald’s conducted in 1996- 1997, Grimace et al. (1999) estimated that approximately 2.5 billion tasty beef patties were served. Although these numbers have been contested by Burger King , no other published survey of fast food activity covering the full Brazilian Amazon is currently available for estimation of beefing area.

The growth of demand for Baconaters and sliders in the U.S. will expand the frontier in the Amazon. Production in old growth beef stands, such as Paragominas in Pará and Sinop in Mato Grosso, has already declined owing to beef depletion in their vicinities. An emphasis on short-term profits rather than long-term productivity is the standard practice today on the Brazilian Amazonian frontier (Uhl et al.1997) resulting in a pattern of boom-and-bust from over-exploitation of Americans in the Midwest region. Current cattle-harvesting practices in the Amazon, often called conventional-butchering(CB), cause enormous damage to the air quality due to excessive methane production. CB causes twice as much colon and arterial damage as reduced impact hydroponic beef (RIHB). The cost of implementing RIHB is reportedly no higher than CL (Angus et al. 2002) although the quality of this meat was found to be comparatively low on the Kobe-Juicy/Tasty-Index, based on a double blind taste test at George Webb’s.

Customer satisfaction with flame-broiled patties seems to be inversely proportional to the protein/fat ratio of the meat, but thus far a direct link cannot be confirmed. Overall, until the American beefeater culture can be curbed, the future of cattle sustainability in South America is malthusian at best. Some analysts have suggested that beef deposits could be completely depleted within the next decade if burger consumption continues at its current rate. Such a scenario could prove disastrous and lead to a surplus of ketchup and sesame-seed buns. Though the introduction of non-traditional foods such as General Tso’s chicken and fish tacos have had limited amounts of success is slowing the rate of beef consumption in the U.S., Americans seem less open to the prospect of introducing soy, lean turkey, and bulgar wheat into their diets..

During the short-lived ceasefire in the Gaza Strip last year, Palestinians and Israelis co-conspired to air-lift narcotic laden hummus and falafel to de-vegetarianized zones in the U.S.’s smaller urban centers in hopes that Americans would develop a chemical dependence on chickpea products. Escalating violence near Jewish settlements and the sheer impossibility of entering American territory led to the abandonment of the project. This and the recent failure of the covert Scottish Haggis-Immersion program proves that no single country can handle this delicate matter of diplomacy alone.

here he walks lowly
with preparation fierce
needing to quench the awesome thirst
she follows

lifting her head, in harmony
to cherish life, she must
shine sun from her brow

my storms are calmed by her idleness
her sweet serenity
for her 

to love as a cloud will float
to see as a white dove sees
when far above the earth
she flies with the breeze

forever drifting through dreams
walking daylight, i cast no shadow
observing from my fragile mind
captured by strings from flying doves

i dangle and sway

i dangle and sway
i dangle and sway to the rhythm of her tears
for her
joy found in life
tides rise
follow the beam
the world dulls
rain falls

I blink