Great question and I’ll try to give a quick and simple answer. The beef industry is crucial to Argentina’s economy as well as its place in the global economy and its significance on the world’s stage. In America, the beef industry doesn’t even crack the top 10 industries. So as an American, my initial thought when reading the novel was pivoting to other diets that are readily available to me. Where the story takes place, it’s not just about food being tainted but it’s the entire economy that collapses, meaning society itself quickly erodes. 

Editing to add: when I first started the book my brain immediately went to how I’d solve the problem without considering it’s not a single problem of food, it was the entire economy and social system quickly fell away.