Australia: chaotic commodity producer to bastion of high-quality beef

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As a student of the history and future of the global animal protein industry, I love stumbling on a decisive lynchpin, an inflection point, an irrefutable unlock.

One such industry trajectory-changing gem has been hiding in plain sight with our friends in Australia: their MSA grading system, a beef quality grading scheme to increase the consistency and predictability of a consumer's eating quality.

MSA is turning a once scrappy but chaotic commodity-producing country into a global player known for high-quality beef.

I'm sure there's some specific sports analogy to use here, but I'm going to skip that and say that the MSA story is everything you want in an underdog story.

But we have to start with the chaotic commodity part of the origin story to appreciate the extent of Australia beef's eventual glow-up.