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Happy Monday, ranchers—
Most ranchers hear the word blockchain and tune out—and frankly, that’s been the correct response more often than not. For years, it’s been a solution in search of a problem, pushed by people who’ve never trailed cattle or shipped a load in their life.
But something changed in 2025.
RFID became mandatory for interstate movement. Export buyers started asking harder questions about traceability. Carbon markets went from theoretical to transactional. And quietly, outside the U.S., fully integrated traceability systems moved from pilot projects to real operations handling real cattle.
This issue’s deep dive isn’t about chasing buzzwords or copying models that don’t fit American ranching. It’s about understanding the direction of travel. An Indian startup stacking RFID, IoT, AI, and blockchain onto individual animals isn’t the future of U.S. beef—but it is a preview of where traceability expectations are heading.
You don’t need to adopt everything you read here. But you do need to understand it. Because the people buying beef, financing beef, and regulating beef already do.
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