[throwup238]

Funding was recently cut but this infestation has been building for years. The key failure that caused this current outbreak was during COVID. The lockdowns shut down both the release flights by the US and the mosquito breeding facilities in Latina America, grinding the whole pest control program to a halt.

[timr]

From the other link on the front page about this subject [1]:

> Illegal cattle smuggling, long considered one of the most efficient money-laundering routes for the drug cartels which terrorised San Pedro Sula, is regarded as the main reason for the accelerating advance. Up to 800,000 cattle a year are illicitly raised in nature reserves, such as the UNESCO-protected Rio Platano Biosphere in Honduras, and then smuggled by boat and truck up to Mexico. The flies, of course, travel with the livestock, embedded in cattle hides, accelerating their advance.

> “Everything indicates that illegal cattle routes from Central America are the arteries through which the screw worm is circulating again toward Mexico,” wrote Jeremy Radachowsky, director for Mesoamerican and the Western Caribbean at the Wildlife Conservation Society, in a recent paper.

So for those who keep trying to make the connection, it has little, if anything, to do with US politics. Meanwhile, I had no idea that cattle smuggling was a money-laundering route for drug cartels. TIL!

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...

[fc417fc802]

> So for those who keep trying to make the connection, it has little, if anything, to do with US politics.

I follow your intended meaning (USAID & etc cuts). But taken literally it's US policies and propaganda that enable the drug cartels. Our dysfunctions are still ultimately the root of the problem.

[timr]

OK, so let me be even more explicit: for those who continue to want to connect this to recent changes in the US political system, the relationship is tenuous, at best.

[0xDEAFBEAD]

The world is complex and interdependent. The US, being a powerful and influential country, has direct or indirect involvement in pretty much everything. That doesn't mean we are to blame for everything.

[fc417fc802]

I agree. We certainly aren't at fault for the existence of organized crime in general. However our aggressively exported drug policy is very obviously the root that props up the Mexican and South American drug cartels (among others). There's decades of academic literature and economic analysis on this point.

When a parasite is spreading due to a large scale money laundering tactic by a large scale criminal enterprise whose scale is only enabled by our policy I class that as yet another own goal of the war on drugs.

These downstream effects are somewhat non obvious so I think it's worthwhile to point them out when they come up.

[wonderwonder]

Good thing we are considering approving military force against the cartels. Optimally those large scale criminal enterprises will soon find themselves to be of much smaller scale after we start drone striking them. The cartels are already being hurt by the increased security along our southern borders as well as the large crackdown from Mexican authorities as they seek to appease Trump.

Incredible that we could have been doing this the whole time, we just chose not to. We just chose to allow the cartels to act in whatever way they saw fit and to cross our border with their poison and violence whenever they wanted.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/world/americas/mexico-car...

[Teever]

Are you concerned about the possibility that the cartels can strike back with their own drones?

If they do so, what do you feel should be the correct response?

[Hikikomori]

Is there a problem America can't solve with guns?

[bloomingeek]

> So for those who keep trying to make the connection, it has little, if anything, to do with US politics.

Right now, as the world turns, we have the greatest number of appointees in positions of governmental influence on policies, that have no idea what they are doing because of a lack of expertise. Almost all these vital positions are politically appointed by the current administration. Need an example: soon the policies of JFK jr., God help us, are going to, unfortunately, prove my point.

[macintux]

Yeah, the way we’re turning our backs on one of the most important medical miracles in recent years is horrifying. I hope COVID or something worse doesn’t cause too much carnage.

[Noumenon72]

Someone must have decided they weren't "essential". Big mistake.

[footlose_3815]

Twice

[andsoitis]

Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment.

[Numerlor]

Screwworm also infects wildlife and occasionally humans, it's really not something you want to have in the area if you can help it

[20after4]

It sounds like it's more than occasionally infecting humans: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...

[alephnerd]

> Better for health, the environment.

India has an equally large cattle industry that outproduces American dairy and cattle, yet their industry has a fraction of the carbon and methane impact as American dairy and cattle rearing [0] because the feed used in Indian industry is crop residue instead of industrialized meat+grain mixtures.

American Ag is hyperconsolidated into 3 processors [1] which makes it difficult for innovations to develop, whereas an equally large country like India has 228 local run dairy cooperatives and multiple private sector players each generating around $500M-2B in revenue.

Yet, the comments I'm seeing here on HN (and with those who I chatted with at the state level Dems) are reminiscent to those who blamed autoworkers and coalworkers for not learning to code back in 2014.

If someone like me who has been somewhat hesitant about Lina Khan until after getting deep into the dairy industry recently, I think HNers should recognize the value this train of thought can have in 2026 and 2028.

84% of Americans consume dairy or dairy alternative (still synthesized using dairy) products [2] - don't make this yet another culture war topic

[0] - https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/from-extinction-t...

[1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv...

[2] - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights...

[gruez]

>India has an equally large cattle industry that outproduces American dairy and cattle

That's a tad misleading. The statistics I could find only says that India outproduces the US in dairy, not beef. Rounding

>yet their industry has a fraction of the carbon and methane impact as American dairy and cattle rearing [0]

I did a cursory search in your source for "carbon" and "methane" and couldn't find anything to back this claim, only vague claims about how India does "Regenerative farming" and is therefore "low methane".

>because the feed used in Indian industry is crop residue instead of industrialized meat+grain mixtures.

That's not scalable and only works because the country is poor and beef/dairy consumption isn't high. There's no way you can supply American level demand for beef/dairy by only using crop residue.

>American Ag is hyperconsolidated into 3 processors which makes it difficult for innovations to develop, whereas an equally large country like India has 26 state run dairy cooperatives and multiple private sector players.

You can easily tell an opposite story about how consolidate companies have bigger budgets for R&D and capital projects, as opposed to 26 cooperatives each trying to implement some sort of strategy.

[mahirsaid]

Regardless, it's terrible to have around you. Your dog will have it too if let be. they do need to be controlled if it gets out of hand. Better now than when its a bigger problem.

[ajmurmann]

Could I start a processor today and disrupt them? (Real question, I know almost noting and meat processing)

[alephnerd]

Nope. These are organizations that can generate multi-billion dollar revenues, and could outcompete based on investment capacity alone.

[kristjansson]

And we should encourage that by leveraging the response to a natural disaster to advance your particular policy goals?

[ben_w]

While I am a vegetarian and thus am an existence proof, there's multiple different ways in which something can be "essential".

Anyone going "let's stop a thing today which will messes with a non-trivial fraction of our food production in a few years' time, without preparing either that food sector nor the dietary choices of the consumers before that happens" is definitely making a high-risk strategic choice.

[SoftTalker]

Already happening. Beef is rapidly becomming unaffordable. A steak at the supermarket is >$20. Can't imagine what they cost at a restaurant. I've switched to mostly turkey, chicken, and pork.

[alephnerd]

That's due to issues around monopolization in the Dairy and Cattle industry in the US [1].

70% of all processors in the dairy and cattle industry are now owned by 3 companies. Processors don't own cattle - they just process raw material like dairy and meat into cheese and pasteurized milk and handle the entire supply chain. But because they control the supply chain, distribution, and even the feed [0] used they can set rates and vendors used by farmers.

I posted an article about this earlier on HN, but it seems HNers like to talk about antitrust for search engines and not dairy and beef production.

Antitrust for me, oligopolic market forces for thee.

[0] - https://www.landolakesinc.com/what-we-do/animal-nutrition/

[1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv...

___________

To u/andrew_lettuce below:

Canada has the exact same issue of processor consolidation and oligopoly in agriculture as the US [0][1][2]

Arguably, it's worse than the US because this process started in the 1990s in Canada [3] versus the 2010s in the US.

[0] - https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/terrence-galarneau/blog/4...

[1] - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7350140/

[2] - https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/why-only-t...

[3] - https://www.eap.mcgill.ca/MagRack/RH/RH_E_97_05.htm

[andrew_lettuce]

This isn't true in Canada and we're seeing as big of price increases for beef, greater than the US for ground beef. This is a supply issue while demand has increased. Drought and costs have also impacted herd size

[HillRat]

Packer and ag consolidation is a huge problem, but the underlying issue here is climate change and long-lasting droughts; some of the issues with herd size — the smallest since about 1950 — come from COVID hangover when cows weren’t getting processed and price-per-head plummeted, but the immediate problem is that ranchers can’t support large herds due to lack of rain and cost of feed. We’re looking at long-term cost trends that are unlikely to reverse or even be significantly ameliorated anytime soon.

[alephnerd]

> the immediate problem is that ranchers can’t support large herds due to lack of rain and cost of feed

Ranchers that can support large herds (2,000+) are those who earn a net profit [0] and are consolidating because processors do not want to support small farms.

While environmental factors do play a role, saying it's the primary reason is greenwashing of the real oligopolies tendencies arising in American Ag industry.

[0] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv...

[gruez]

Is this supported by the data? During the pandemic people were also blaming "monopolization" or "consolidation" for the rise in grocery prices, but in reality the margins of publicly traded supermarket companies went up by a percentage point or two.

[jncfhnb]

Profit margin increasing by a percentage point on a low margin business is potentially significant

[alephnerd]

Yep. To quote The Bullvine [0] (Axios for the cattle and dairy industry):

"Here’s another force reshaping the industry that has nothing to do with immigration: processor consolidation. According to industry analysis, just three major cooperatives—Dairy Farmers of America, Land O’Lakes, and California Dairies—now handle over 80% of the nation’s milk marketing.

These processors need massive, consistent volumes. New processing plants require millions of pounds of milk per day to operate efficiently. From a logistical standpoint, it’s far more efficient to contract with a dozen 5,000-cow dairies than 500 smaller operations.

I was at a dairy conference in Wisconsin last year where a DFA representative candidly admitted: “We’re building plants that need 4-5 million pounds per day. We can’t deal with 200 small farms—we need 10 large ones.”

This “processor pull” creates powerful incentives for farm-level consolidation. I’ve seen it happen firsthand in regions where a new mega-processing plant opens—suddenly, there’s pressure on every farm in the area to either scale up or get squeezed out"

Also [1]

-----------

The fact that a country like India can support 228 milk cooperatives each generating around $500M-2B in revenue and outcompete American dairy+cattle in production and even reducing environmental impact with marginal subsidizes [2] means distribution+processing consolidation and it's side effects (cattle monoculture, non-competitive prices given to farmers, dairy processers NOW becoming animal feed manufacturers) are a good example of market failures due to oligopolic control.

No one at the WI and MI state Dem level is chatting about this based on some of my own meeting with them recently. This is the kind of swing vote topic that can flip all 3 branches of government in 26 and 28.

If someone like me who has been somewhat hesitant about Lina Khan until after getting deep into the dairy industry recently, I think HNers should recognize the opportunity this provides. 84% of Americans consume dairy and dairy products [3] - this is an easy win if some sympathy was provided.

Yet, the comments I'm seeing here on HN (and with those who I chatted with at the state level Dems) are reminiscent to those who blamed autoworkers and coalworkers for not learning to code back in 2014.

[0] - https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/dairys-great-cons...

[1] - https://www.thebullvine.com/news/will-your-dairy-farm-surviv...

[2] - https://www.thebullvine.com/dairy-industry/from-extinction-t...

[3] - https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights...

[throwup238]

Maybe for a USDA Prime ribeye or tenderloin at Bristol Farms or something.

If you go to an ethnic store like Arabic halaal markets, ribeye steaks can be had for less than $10 a pound (but they’re ungraded). In one of the highest CoL areas in Southern California. Costco USDA Prime ribeyes are $20/pound and ribeye rounds are $25/pound.

[HDThoreaun]

Im still getting outer skirt for $8 a pound at my grocery. Seems pretty affordable to me

[genghisjahn]

I get great cuts of steak for less than $10 all the time.

[SoftTalker]

At a supermarket? Or local butcher/processor?

[ajmurmann]

Doesn't this impact wildlife as well? Apparently the Florida Key Deer was threatened by this a decade ago: https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infesta...

[zahlman]

Screwworms will also infect humans, with horrific and potentially fatal consequences.

[lazide]

Screwworms will eat people too, if allowed to. You really don’t want them in your area.

[FpUser]

>"Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment."

We can also live in a cave, better for the environment.

[f1shy]

Or just dissapear (which btw, no joking, is what some people propose)

[spamizbad]

I guess nature is “finding a way” after all…

[raverbashing]

Funny, you don't seem to have beef with the worm eating beef

But it can and does infect humans and other animals

[AlecSchueler]

They didn't say they had beef with anyone eating beef.

[artursapek]

125lb take

[delfinom]

The funding was never cut. That was misinfo spread by morons because there was a typical Trump dispute of "mexico will pay for it". But the reality was that was in talks of a Mexico specific coverage program. The Panama program was never touched and is run by a third party agency with stakes holders consisting of the USDA and Panama government.

But yes the current outbreak built up since COVID.

[fc417fc802]

So funding was never cut, but actually some subset did experience cuts? Which is it?

We're taking about Mexico to US trade here so the Mexico specific subprogram seems directly relevant.

[throwaway5752]

Question, are they morons? Is your disagreement with them really that simple? Was it necessary to call them that? I don't like posting this comment, because it will be distracting and tone policing. I was just going to downvote and flag your comment and move on, but I think you offered some valuable information about the policy and I'd like to hear more without the divisive parts that add less value.