On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity of their meat. After the Norman Conquest, the French-speaking nobles who ruled England naturally used French words to refer to beef and broccoli stir fry meats they were served.

Lascaux, show aurochs in hunting scenes. In the United States, the growth of the beef business was largely due to expansion in the Southwest. Agricultural land worldwide could be reduced by almost half if no beef or mutton were eaten. The consumption of beef poses numerous threats to the natural environment. Earth, not including the large agricultural fields that are used to grow cattle feed. Amazon region, are being converted to agriculture for meat production.

In 2018, the United States, Brazil, and China produced the most beef with 12. 57 million metric tons of beef in 2020, down 950K metric tons from the prior year. Major decline for production of beef was from India up to 510k and Australia down to 309K metric tons from the prior year. Beef is first divided into primal cuts, large pieces of the animal initially separated by butchering. These are basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut. The term “primal cut” is quite different from “prime cut”, used to characterize cuts considered to be of higher quality. This section does not cite any sources.