St. Paulite

I hail from the North Star State. Top the Tater is delicious and Prince was a genius. I’m an angry pink monster.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

“America ain’t shit cause the white man’s got a god complex” —Being There

[Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker⚔️ @Nomads4Pritzker]

So, I've worked in the beef industry. I have a fairly detailed knowledge of beef markets, the supply chain, parasites and parasiticides, etc. Suffice it to say, this is a nightmare scenario, but one we've known was coming since at least 2022.

New World Screwworm was eradicated from North and Central America in the mid-90's. The US gov't (APHIS) funded a program of screwworm drops, where they bred sterile males so that extant populations couldn't reproduce and move northwards. But in 2022 NWS jumped the Darien gap and started moving northwards once again. It's most likely that they came undetected on livestock brought alongside migrants fleeing political instability in South and Central America. Elon Musk/DOGE, of course, cut several monitoring programs that would have detected this exact scenario. The screwworm drops are still funded, but the monitoring programs are what have been cut - a stupid move if there ever was one.

A serious Central/South America policy would have worked hand-in-hand with CA/SA governments to help contain this, but we've never had a serious policy towards South America, not during the Biden years, and especially not under Trump. The USDA broke ground on a sterile screwworm facility in Texas... last month. I worry it's too little, too late.

Screwworm is so dangerous because, unlike other fly larvae, they lay eggs and feed on living flesh. So something like a small scratch (or even bug bite) can quickly becomes infested, and the larvae will burrow into the flesh, growing the wound and attracting more screwworm. They don't only parasitize cattle, but will also feed on wildlife, domestic pets, even humans. Since they have detected screwworms in domesticated cattle right now, it's likely that there is a wild reservoir as well. We can quarantine herds and pets, but we can't quarantine deer and armadillos. They will move, and so will the NWS.

Under normal circumstances, cattle are moved around - a lot. Calves will be sent to stockers through their adolescence, then shipped to feedlots for finishing. A lot of calving operations (like 70%) are small, and small-time producers don't always catch parasite infestations. Cattle moved in-state don't require a certificate of veterinary inspection, so it's easy for an infested animal to be moved without being noticed. Animals crossing state lines do need a CVI, but Texas has such an enormous cattle population (something like 13 million head) that as goes Texas, so goes the nation.

Fortunately, we have a lot of drugs that treat NWS. The FDA has issued several emergency use authorizations in the last year or so. But every input raises the price of beef, and treatment only makes a difference if producers catch an infestation early. If an infestation spreads unnoticed on a large feedlot, it can hit hard, both in terms of cattle that have to be killed, and treatments that then have to be deployed. Producers will spend days at a time running cattle through the chute, inspecting them and applying parasiticides. It costs a lot of money, which is then passed on to the consumer.

What does that mean for you? Beef is a commodity, and just because there's no NWS up here in Illinois doesn't mean that prices won't skyrocket - and they will skyrocket. US herd size is already at record lows, and this will result in culls. Consumer prices also run 18-24 months behind, which means that shocks to the supply chain now are still going to be felt by consumers in 2028.

It's hard to say if our government will be able to muster an effective response - though I don't trust our current administration, which can't even throw a 250th anniversary party, to be able to deal with an ecological issue of this magnitude. It doesn't help that our current USDA secretary is a lawyer and think-tank creature. I don't much trust the state government of Texas either. The industry has also taken the workforce of large animal veterinarians for granted - a monopoly/market power issue that I just can't get in to here.

For me, it comes back to our federal government having an incoherent policy on Central and South America. We knew what was coming, we know what's going to happen, but we cut the program meant to prevent this scenario. Instead of taking those countries seriously as partners, the government has been stupid and domineering.

Here's the kicker: this is what the industry voted for. They might scream, they might get bailed out, but all that means is that you, the consumer, are going to be paying more for beef, plus whatever bailout gets shoveled their way. Until the industry accepts that they are part of a larger system; that they cannot eternally privatize the gains and publicize the losses of beef production; that they need to consider sustainability and stewardship in the management of their operations, this is only going to keep happening. Eventually, they may find that there is very little goodwill for them among the public, and people will decide that a Brazilian ribeye tastes just as good as one from Texas.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@NashvilleZoo This is a very bad idea for the animals, aren’t they terribly loud?

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@alexL_E_I @BonerWizard I need to know what’s going on between him and the pigeons now

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@NickHannula My dad was telling me some jokey line about Norwegians moving to Minnesota for the farmland and Finns moving to *Northern Minnesota* for the farmland

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@quichwe10 @sp6runderrated It was a garden of Eden with soil 4 feet thick, compared to the cold sand our ancestors had to coax plants out of

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@RepPeteStauber Pete Stauber protects pedophiles, pass it on.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@gracecamille_ She has a nice shape, but the cut of that bikini bottom is horribly unflattering. It draws the eyes upwards and makes her waist look weirdly big compared to her hips.

[Vince Mpls @vincempls]

#OnThisDay June 2 1838: After being evicted from Fort Snelling by the US Army, French-Canadian bootlegger Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant moves downstream to Fountain Cave, establishing the first saloon and permanent settlement that eventually becomes the city of St Paul, Minnesota.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@jwmkup @tcblume I love this Francis Bacon knock off. I’m not gonna lie.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@JeremiahDJohns @ComArbatax If you ever get to the chance, watch Sound and Fury (2000). It’s a documentary on that very subject.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@yumtapwater @ShriekingNoises This was many years ago, but they were at least 2 inches I recall :(

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@ShriekingNoises @yumtapwater Yes, the problem was there too! I remember a phd student telling me that when they moved the lab to Minneapolis they had to take their desk phones with and my professor‘s phone was full of baby cockroaches. 🤢

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@NickHannula Yeah, I think that that would go a long way for the city budgets but politically it’s very difficult to pull off. It’s a problem all over America.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@ShriekingNoises @yumtapwater Oh my God, see my above post! We were having a conversation about that just recently at a U of MN lab reunion/retirement party I attended. We were speculating on the origin of the giant cockroaches lol

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@yumtapwater In the medical block with Moos Tower at the University of Minnesota, on the basement level, there were big cockroaches when I worked there in the late 90s. I think they were lab escapees. I didn’t see anything like that again until I moved to New York City 😬.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@hostileworm This looks like a drug induced psychosis hallucination with worms

[Mara Webster 🇬🇧🇺🇸 @Mara_Webster]

If anybody asks how I’m doing right now I’m going to send them this video as a representation of my current state of mind

[Karl Barx @internetguy63]

@parismartineau The mastermind behind the 50 year mortgage definitely fucks young people.

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@vincempls Train days and the biggest street party in the Midwest…Grand Old Day!

[St. Paulite @Angrydomo]

@AlsikkanTV One of the best last lines of dialogue in a movie ever