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US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

bbc.com

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Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#31

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #16

> A new pick-up truck that once cost $40,000 now runs to $100,000. A wooden fence post has gone from about $6 to as much as $19. A quarter-mile roll of barbed wire has doubled, from $60 to $130. Everything he uses day to day, he says, has jumped in price since the Covid pandemic. I know why pick-ups have gone up in cost (though I don't think it's quite to 2.5x levels like suggested here since the pandemic), but woode…

Generalized inflation affects everything. Energy prices have gone up, labor prices have gone up.

The people who sell the barbed wire and wooden posts presumably like to be able to eat, so they need to raise their prices to be able to afford groceries, etc.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#32

Post by sssilver »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #16

> A new pick-up truck that once cost $40,000 now runs to $100,000. A wooden fence post has gone from about $6 to as much as $19. A quarter-mile roll of barbed wire has doubled, from $60 to $130. Everything he uses day to day, he says, has jumped in price since the Covid pandemic. I know why pick-ups have gone up in cost (though I don't think it's quite to 2.5x levels like suggested here since the pandemic), but woode…

Because people who sell wooden posts and barbed wire use pickup trucks, among other things that have gone up in price.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#33

Post by thijson »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #17
JohnFen wrote: post #11

Beef prices have become simply insane. The value I get from beef can no longer justify the expense, so I've simply stopped buying it at all. I've largely replaced it with pork. Pork used to be the most popular meat in the US. I wonder if it will be again.

The neat part is that there is no inflation here: you just substituted a worse product for a better one and our friends in the govt call it good.

I think Greenspan called it hedonics.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#34

Post by recursivedoubts »

JohnFen wrote: post #21
recursivedoubts wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The neat part is that there is no inflation here: you just substituted a worse product for a better one and our friends in the govt call it good.

I very much disagree that it's a worse product.

why weren't you always eating pork then? (I like both, prefer beef usually but buy pork often, dislike how hogs are treated tho compared to cows)

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#35

Post by manyatoms »

quacked wrote: post #5

My father-in-law grew up on a small-time farm and then went into environmental engineering as a professor, and briefly worked on the Secretary of Agriculture's staff in the Biden administration. He has told me that there are 3-5 (can't remember the number) colossal meatpacking corporations in the US that have laid waste to smaller-time competition, and now that the market is captured their owners and shareholders can…

> In Arkansas 20% of people tested on a big free testing day were sensitized to the galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose molecule

What effect does this have on the person?

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#36

Post by svachalek »

JohnFen wrote: post #21
recursivedoubts wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The neat part is that there is no inflation here: you just substituted a worse product for a better one and our friends in the govt call it good.

I very much disagree that it's a worse product.

Why were you buying beef before, then? Hasn't pork always been cheaper than beef?

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#37

Post by Noaidi »

JohnFen wrote: post #21
recursivedoubts wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The neat part is that there is no inflation here: you just substituted a worse product for a better one and our friends in the govt call it good.

I very much disagree that it's a worse product.

I knew a man who worked in the food industry for forty years. He told me to never eat U.S. pork the way it is processed today.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#38

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

markstos wrote: post #23

Animal agriculture is a key driver of climate change: https://sentientmedia.org/how-does-livestock-affect-climate-... Along with the high price, that's one more reason to not buy it.

Beef is particularly egregious.

Poultry and even pork are about an order of magnitude more efficient.

It's interesting how long the market was wildly subsidized to hide the true cost of beef.

Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money

#40

Post by allcentury »

markstos wrote: post #23

Animal agriculture is a key driver of climate change: https://sentientmedia.org/how-does-livestock-affect-climate-... Along with the high price, that's one more reason to not buy it.

There’s research now that high density rotational grazing does the opposite.
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