From: Gene McAloon 

There is a market for range fed beef in the US, but most of that market is
for hamburgers made by fast food companies. There is almost no market for
it among general consumers. There is a good reason for that. Many Americans
have tried range fed beef and reject it as inferior. It is seen as
tasteless mostly. And it
is.

It is the marbling that comes from grain fed beef that gives it its flavor.
You probably would call that marbling just "fat," but it is that
fat that gives our beef its taste. Once exposed to it, range fed beef seems
a poor substitute suitable for nothing much but McDonalds hamburgers.

If the US has imposed a tariff on NZ beef, it is probably because most such beef
the US imports comes from Argentina and we probably want to protect that
source by limiting imports from other suppliers. That is not protectionism,
but sensible trade policy as opposed to the idiocy of free market chaos. 
At that, I
doubt that NZ could undercut the Argentine price anyway nor even supply the
quantity needed. Your country is just too small to be taken seriously as a
trading partner given the import needs of a country like the US.

On Mon, 03 May 2004 16:19:21 +1200, splice{at}webbd.nls.net (Don Hills) wrote:

>In article , "Mark"
 wrote:
>|
>|With the increased beef prices due to that one mad cow, my supermarket has
>|added "free range" beef from down your way. Based on the
gamey taste, I'd
>|guess that "free range" means the beef's run around looking
for clumps of
>|grass to eat and build big muscles running and avoiding getting shot
 |other words, the $3.99/lb vs. $7.99/lb for American steaks ain't worth the
>|savings - unless you're on diet I guess>
>
>It's grass fed[1] beef. I've eaten enough grain fed beef to ponder the
>catchphrase of the little old lady from the (Wendy's?) advert, "Where's the
>beef?" In other words, it's tender but tasteless to me. Simply a matter of
>taste. The point is, if there was no market for it in the USA no-one would
>buy it and there'd be no need for tariffs.
>
>[1]Pasture raised, but not free range. We manage pastures very carefully[2].
>The most exercise the cattle get is walking from one to another every week
>or so.
>
>[2]Optimum cattle condition occurs for a surprisingly small range of pasture
>weight, measured in kilograms per square. In other words, if the grass is
>too long/lush or too short/sparse, condition suffers. We have it down to a
>fine eough art to produce different beef for different markets - for
>example, the Japanese prefer a leaner, more finely marbled cut than you do.

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