Inflation mainly. And it's going to get worse as the Republicans appear to keep purposely doing things to cause inflation (tariffs, pointless wars based on ego, negotiating in bad faith and making money from said failed negotiations by insider trading, etc).
US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
101–110 of 136 posts
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which was also true before COVID. So what has changed?
Shock moved the price equilibrium to new higher price point. And big enough share of demand accepted that new price point.
> And big enough share of demand accepted that new price point.
Exactly - this is literally econ 101, no appeals to "greed" needed.
As they say, the cure for high prices is high prices. You already saw this in a number of different areas. Fast food prices outpaced what people were willing to pay, so people stopped eating out and businesses needed to adjust accordingly.
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#103The amount of beef eaten per person per year in the USA is absolutely insane anyway: USA - 37kg/capita UK - 18kg/capita We're not exactly shy of roast beef on this island either - the French nicknamed us "rosbifs" for a reason.
I don't remember when I first found out, but it blew my mind that sausages in the US are typically beef. Like, what? Sausages are like quintessentially pork products. Like the whole point is that you have a lot of off cuts of a cheap meat and you make sausages. Beef sausages? Yeah, that's like a step change in wealth, haha.
Sausages are typically pork in the us. Hot dogs are often beef though
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Things might not work itself out in desirable ways. I imagine what will happen is that portions will shrink, and become adulterated. For example, a restaurant ostensibly using ground beef might partially substitute something cheaper... Food fraud is rampant in developing countries. One example: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/07/28/food-fraud-... https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa…
Well if you care about portion size or the introduction of substitutes then you can change your buying habits. We only eat out for dinner at great restaurants because I can cook better food at home in a lot of cases. You're going to have to change those habits anyway because even without inflation that has been ongoing since the pandemic began you still have a lot of pressure to push prices higher on beef and other "…
> We only eat out for dinner at great restaurants because I can cook better food at home in a lot of cases.
I also rarely eat in a restaurant, but when I do I make it a great one (to me -- I'm not talking only or even mostly about highfalutin places). Aside from being a better inherent experience, it also makes it more of a special event, which increases the pleasure I get from it. Any fantastic thing experienced frequently ceases to feel fantastic.
The truth is that most people can cook better (and healthier) food than most restaurants. The value proposition restaurants provide is mostly experience (a lovely night out in a pleasant environment where you're being waited on is fun) and convenience (just because you could cook it better doesn't mean you want to, particularly for lengthy and involved dishes).
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#105Beef 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.
I think I might just start mainlining lamb and veal. Not much cheaper than the beef these days.
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many people see this as a problem, but I see it as a normal function of market economies. Disruptions, changes in government policy, changes in consumer behavior, and more will over the long term just work themselves out. Of course some policies or seemingly "voluntary" policies may cause undue price increases, but even those work themselves out. At the end of the day as more and more people want to consume the same…
Things might not work itself out in desirable ways. I imagine what will happen is that portions will shrink, and become adulterated. For example, a restaurant ostensibly using ground beef might partially substitute something cheaper... Food fraud is rampant in developing countries. One example: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/07/28/food-fraud-... https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa…
> I imagine what will happen is that portions will shrink
I wouldn't mind this up to a point. One of the things that I find really irritating about most US restaurants (I'm an American, if it matters) is that the portion sizes tend to be far too large.
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#107The amount of beef eaten per person per year in the USA is absolutely insane anyway: USA - 37kg/capita UK - 18kg/capita We're not exactly shy of roast beef on this island either - the French nicknamed us "rosbifs" for a reason.
I don't remember when I first found out, but it blew my mind that sausages in the US are typically beef. Like, what? Sausages are like quintessentially pork products. Like the whole point is that you have a lot of off cuts of a cheap meat and you make sausages. Beef sausages? Yeah, that's like a step change in wealth, haha.
> that sausages in the US are typically beef
They are? That's not my personal experience, but maybe there's something unusual in the part of the US I live in. I mean, beef sausages exist and you can get them, but you generally have to choose them intentionally.
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't remember when I first found out, but it blew my mind that sausages in the US are typically beef. Like, what? Sausages are like quintessentially pork products. Like the whole point is that you have a lot of off cuts of a cheap meat and you make sausages. Beef sausages? Yeah, that's like a step change in wealth, haha.
I wouldn't say they're "typically" all beef. When you go shopping for something like hotdogs for instance, if you just pick up a package of "hot dogs" or "weiners" they'll typically be a mixture of chicken, turkey, pork, and maybe beef. For instance: https://www.oscarmayer.com/products/00044700000045-bun-lengt... Some people really look down on these kinds of products though and see this as a "mystery meat" of extrem…
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Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
>you just substituted a worse product for a better one and our friends in the govt call it good. I agree that somewhat distorts the effect of inflation, but at the same time it has to be done for inflation measures to make any sense. Otherwise we'd still be measuring the prices of heating coal and whale blubber.
Because those are our only two options? We ar perfectly capable of intelligently changing how we calculate inflation. And the current administration's idea that if an American stops buying something because they cannot afford it anymore , means inflation went down is delusional.
There isn't really one single measure of inflation, despite what is often implied. There are many. The reason for that is that every measurement methodology distorts some aspect of the economy, so you (should) choose the measure that distorts the least for the aspect you care about.
Re: US beef prices have soared but farmers aren't making more money
#110> 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…
For lumber, data at [1] indicates much volatility in North American lumber prices from January 2023 to February 2026. Trough-to-peak prices for 2023, 2024 and 2025 have been over 30% across a given year. The main difference for 2026 so far is the stability of prices which have remain peaked for half a year. Now is the perfect time for someone being overly dramatic to say "In the 2 years since July 2024, lumber prices…
Do you have a graph that extends to 2020?
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/lumber
Roughly ~400 index pre-Covid. Roughly ~580 index the past year. 45% inflation, compared to 30% reported inflation by BLS from October 2019 to June 2026.
So yes, lumber prices are definitely beating inflation.
Not sure what you were trying to say by playing around with the numbers in the last 4 years.