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Hopefully most people here getting ribeyes aren’t getting them from the same factory farms that supply McDonald’s and sell other cheap kinds of beef. A ribeye i

Hopefully most people here getting ribeyes aren’t getting them from the same factory farms that supply McDonald’s and sell other cheap kinds of beef. A ribeye is an occasional luxury and best bought from the farmer.

bookofjoe 11d ago
>... best bought from the farmer. Perhaps you're anticipating this: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/4/trump-allows-ranchers-process-beef/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/4/trump-allows...
- Loughla 11d ago
  This just opens up the door for meat that isn't inspected before sale. That's not ideal, really. There are farmers everywhere who will sell you a cow. There are small butcher shops that will process it. This is a solution in search of a problem, in my opinion. It will only benefit already massive corporation farms.
- mcv 11d ago
  Is that an executive order overriding a law? Is that possible? I thought executive orders only affected the federal government. I'm all for breaking the stranglehold of those big 4 meatpacking companies, but make it an actual law, not something that won't hold up in court.
SoftTalker 11d ago
Most people buy their ribeyes at the supermarket like they do all their other food.
- jonstewart 10d ago
  Too bad. I get mine from the small town butcher/locker when I’m in the Midwest in summer, and the neighborhood farmer’s market on the east coast the rest of the year. A couple of ribeyes a year and I’m good, so I see them as an affordable luxury where I can pay for good prime meat from a short supply chain.
hedora 10d ago
The industry has mostly consolidated packing and distribution. McDonald's is mostly selling trimmings from cows that also produce high-end steaks. Surprisingly enough, they hold most beef processing plants to higher standards than the rest of the industry (they're still buying cheap trimmings, don't get me wrong), because they do so much volume, basic probability tells us that most food poisoning outbreaks would hit them otherwise. Sure, you could find a farmer that raises cows and butchers them on site, but that's rare, and the easiest way to actually achieve that is to buy a whole or half cow at a time. Most small farms don't bother with that: they raise it from calf to adult on grazing land, then send it to a feed lot where the miracles of modern science significantly increase the cow's weight before slaughter. Cows that are still producing calves get retained to grow the herd next year. If you want to pay extra for this, look for "grass-fed, grain-finished" beef. Most unlabeled stuff in the US goes through that funnel though.
- SoftTalker 10d ago
  Back when McDonalds was first rolling out their standardized restaurants and menu, it was pretty common for restaurants to buy fresh ground beef from local sources, some of whom were less clean and less careful about temperatures and selling old meat. It was also common for them to mix in old meat with fresher meat to try to "hide" it. Since it's all ground up, it's hard to tell. So they developed standards and demanded that all their hamburgers be formed, frozen, and packaged by the processor and kept frozen until cooking. It's really the safest way to handle that volume of ground beef through the distribution chain. Apparently their 1/4 lb burgers now use fresh beef, not frozen. Not sure how that's handled but it sounds more risky.

bookofjoe 11d ago

>... best bought from the farmer. Perhaps you're anticipating this: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/4/trump-allows-ranchers-process-beef/ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/sep/4/trump-allows...

Loughla 11d ago
This just opens up the door for meat that isn't inspected before sale. That's not ideal, really. There are farmers everywhere who will sell you a cow. There are small butcher shops that will process it. This is a solution in search of a problem, in my opinion. It will only benefit already massive corporation farms.
mcv 11d ago
Is that an executive order overriding a law? Is that possible? I thought executive orders only affected the federal government. I'm all for breaking the stranglehold of those big 4 meatpacking companies, but make it an actual law, not something that won't hold up in court.

SoftTalker 11d ago

Most people buy their ribeyes at the supermarket like they do all their other food.

jonstewart 10d ago
Too bad. I get mine from the small town butcher/locker when I’m in the Midwest in summer, and the neighborhood farmer’s market on the east coast the rest of the year. A couple of ribeyes a year and I’m good, so I see them as an affordable luxury where I can pay for good prime meat from a short supply chain.

hedora 10d ago

The industry has mostly consolidated packing and distribution. McDonald's is mostly selling trimmings from cows that also produce high-end steaks. Surprisingly enough, they hold most beef processing plants to higher standards than the rest of the industry (they're still buying cheap trimmings, don't get me wrong), because they do so much volume, basic probability tells us that most food poisoning outbreaks would hit them otherwise. Sure, you could find a farmer that raises cows and butchers them on site, but that's rare, and the easiest way to actually achieve that is to buy a whole or half cow at a time. Most small farms don't bother with that: they raise it from calf to adult on grazing land, then send it to a feed lot where the miracles of modern science significantly increase the cow's weight before slaughter. Cows that are still producing calves get retained to grow the herd next year. If you want to pay extra for this, look for "grass-fed, grain-finished" beef. Most unlabeled stuff in the US goes through that funnel though.

SoftTalker 10d ago
Back when McDonalds was first rolling out their standardized restaurants and menu, it was pretty common for restaurants to buy fresh ground beef from local sources, some of whom were less clean and less careful about temperatures and selling old meat. It was also common for them to mix in old meat with fresher meat to try to "hide" it. Since it's all ground up, it's hard to tell. So they developed standards and demanded that all their hamburgers be formed, frozen, and packaged by the processor and kept frozen until cooking. It's really the safest way to handle that volume of ground beef through the distribution chain. Apparently their 1/4 lb burgers now use fresh beef, not frozen. Not sure how that's handled but it sounds more risky.