Where's the Beef (From)?

There's a suggestion that a Free Trade Association (FTA) agreement might now be signed between the UK and US governments. The US officials say an agreement depends on the UK's willingness to take their prime beef. Earlier demands that the UK should take chlorinated chicken and hormone-enhanced beef appear to have been dropped. This all sounds very amenable. This 'offer' is, however, being made just as the US is about to bring in tarrifs on many imports from other countries. The offer hasn't gone down well with UK beef farmers as a) they are likely to be undercut and b) its difficult for anyone to establish that animal welfare conditions are comparable in the two countries. The proposed FTA might even be an attempt to drive a wedge between the UK and the European Union (EU). Once the UK is firmly in a FTA with the US, the junior party would find it even more difficult to align with EU standards. The UK could later be arm-twisted into taking chlorinated chicken and hormone-enhanced beef. Signing an FTA, to avoid potential tarrifs on exports, isn't a strong bargaining position (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/14/us-meat-trump-uk-trade-deal-chlorinated-chicken-hormone-beef). Even if the proposed FTA is completely fair, it hardly makes environmental sense. Most experts think folk should be eating less beef and more vegetables/fruit. This is a much healthier diet and it reduces 'greenhouse gas' emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. The US beef would also have to be refrigerated and shipped to the UK. Yet more emissions are generated in this fashion and the climate crisis gets worse.