I've actually found the opposite to be true, at least where I am. I've looked into purchasing a half cow, but most of the farmers around me are charging well above sale price for what I'm looking for. Yes, I can get a half cow at ~$8/lb, but I'd much rather wait for the $4.99/lb if you get a 20lb boneless strip steak. There's tons of farms around me offering bulk deals, but most are like 2 rib eye, 10lb ground chuck, 2lb rump roast 10lb sausage for $100. It's an unreasonable amount of money for what you are actually getting. I feel the same way about buying half a cow.
There's a little risk of a diminishing return, where if you have $1000+ worth of meat in the freezer, and the power goes out, or that freezer fails for whatever reason....you're out that cash. I can see paying a bit more to a farm to have it fresh, but freezing it makes it moot.
It all depends on pricing. I don't know where Popped Cherries is getting his from, but around here I bought a quarter of a cow and even with processing costs it came out to be just under $4/lb. That'll last me a whole year, and you're not finding any steaks/roasts/other cuts besides ground for that cheap.
Any stockpile of perishables is an investment worth protecting with backup power capabilities. Whether it came in the form of a half cow from a farm or acquired over time from the grocery store. Freezer failure is pretty rare, pretty low on the list of concerns, in my experience. I should knock on some wood, I don't want my freezer to fail. We keep a lot of pork from the family hog farms. Probably ten to twenty pounds of chicken, some frozen veggies and a handful of microwavable convenience foods. It's all worth more than the cost of an appropriately sized portable generator to protect it in a power failure.
Wife and I have been discussing whether or not it's worth adding solar panels to our house for the reasons mentioned. We talked about adding a whole house generator, but I think for the cost, solar with a power wall will put us further ahead.
I'm in upstate rural NY. I can't find half a cow for under $6 a pound and that's just straight meat price. The processing and cut selection and vacuum sealing is another fee on top. There's not a shortage of cow farms up here, but there are not many large commercial farms offering. This is primarily smaller farms with 50-100 cows at a time.
Royal Navy to send warships to the Black Sea and break grain blockade in 'urgent solution' For those of you playing global food security bingo at home
Same. We don't eat a lot of beef, so our past purchase of a 1/4 cow was a waste of money. But my folks and a lot of neighbors buy from a guy down the road. Curious, I looked to see what he's getting right now: "Yes, demand has been crazy, and we are currently sold out but hope to have more bundles available in the next 2-3 weeks. I have a waiting list started and will be contacting you in order of your request. Please note, because of ongoing price increases at every level, our basic bundle price is now $190 (at least the following amounts: 20 lbs. of our signature burger, 7 lbs. of assorted roasts and 6 lbs. of assorted steaks)." I see that price is effective June 1, and it's his first price raise in two years.
The prices I've seen in this area is on par with what @Popped Cherries talked about. It DOES bring down the price of steaks and better cuts I guess, but we just don't eat that kind of stuff so its a net cost increase in our annual bill.
I'm not responding in the Elephants and Jackasses thread, re: school shooting in Texas. They would certainly be able to respond the quickest. I just don't understand what is wrong with someone - whether it's an 18 year old or a 50 year old, white, black, republican, democrat - to just shoot people indiscriminately, especially children. What has gone so wrong that human life is so disposable?
you're applying logic to an inherently illogical act. Don't do that. By and large these people are mentally ill to such a severe degree that their actions will never make sense.
How do we change that? How do we teach children how precious life is? How do we identify people that need help? How do we help them so this type of thing doesn't happen? We don't have "mental hospitals" like we did when I was a kid, and we are running frontal labotamies on a building full of "deviants" anymore. Is that a factor?
That's the million dollar question, and I wish there was an easy answer. I think that in general, school shootings are a symptom, rather than the problem itself. I think that violence would still exist in the absence of America's obsession with guns, it would just take a different form. And I think a lot of that has to do with the discourse, both in the media and at home, that paints others as "different" and "bad." Sadly the local news is constantly having to reinforce that the shooter was a legal US resident, because of where that shooting took place and you know damn well the story certain sides of the political spectrum are gonna run with. I believe that a push toward diversity and inclusion would go a long way toward stopping these tragedies -- you don't go shoot up a shopping mall full of black people because of your white nationalist ideology, if you have a bunch of black friends and realize the color of someone's skin makes no difference in their character. I don't think it's coincidence that a lot of these happen in rural areas. I also believe that a lack of universal healthcare is hindering mental health and making these shootings more prevalent. Right now, sadly, you have to have health insurance in order to afford mental health care, and even then the costs can be extreme. It cost me thousands of dollars to get treated for PTSD and depression, and I have (had, back then, but still do too) excellent insurance. So if someone who is not well-off needs help, they're fucked. Even if their parents know they need help. Counseling services in public schools are great in theory, but in practice they can only do so much. If it's a serious issue like these school shooters? Again, better hope you have good insurance, and that you're willing to pay the premiums. Again, I don't think it's a coincidence that the people doing these aren't from well-off families. Our insurance and equitable healthcare access issues in this country are fucked up. Beyond that, the way you are raised plays a part too. So many kids raise themselves now. I was talking with an interviewee today about how hard it is having to parent, because you have to do it in person and online. You have to watch what your kiddos are watching and have access to. We didn't discuss it, but obviously it's very easily for young adults to get radicalized. Parents need to be aware of that. And I believe that, to some extent, these online media companies hold some responsibility, if not legal then certainly at least moral, to police what type of radical material they allow on their platform to begin with. I know it is a slippery slope, but the stakes are high.
Yes, in so many words . We closed down our Psych hospital and now there are homeless people who are a dangerous criminal factor everywhere in the city. This was something that was basically non-existent here 25 years ago, ask Nett. So many people play into this that they branched out to small towns. Working in mental health is really dangerous and it pays for shit for what they have to deal with. That needs to change to attract more help to the industry, because it isn’t getting better. Every year the problem gets larger and the help shrinks.
Why, think he's getting a refund for defective product or something? Or you worried you're on the same one he was?
you mean wasn't taking his? possibly. More than likely I'd bet he had a history of untreated mental episodes. What people don't realize is that antidepressants help with the lows, but they also make you numb to the highs as well. You don't go off and do crazy shit because... you just don't do shit. Anti-depressants make you almost stoic, constantly going between like 4-6 on the scale of emotions. Shout out to lexapro btw