Saturday, June 23, 2012

Beef prices rising..again

"The average retail price of beef from January through April this year is 7.7% higher than the same period a year ago, according to the USDA's Economic Research Service data, while it's remained steady over the past few months, says John Michael Riley, an assistant professor in Mississippi State University's department of agricultural economics. And the average price in 2011 was 9.8% higher than in 2010.

Higher Prices Will Continue

Shoppers are going to continue to see higher prices at the meat counter — and not just for beef. Chris Hurt, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, says he expects the average price of beef to rise to about $5.30 a pound next year. So far this year through May, retail prices have averaged $5.03 a pound — a record high for this time period (it was $4.72 a pound for January-May 2011 and $4.83 for all of 2011). The latest Consumer Price Index for all food is projected to increase 2.5% to 3.5% in 2012"

Courtesy of Yahoo finance

An average increase in the price of beef over the last two years of 8.5%, all very predictable, mostly under the radar as well courtesy of the prevalence of food stamps among US consumers.

Now here at the Last Cause, we believe in giving value for value, so this is not a shot at "greedy cattle barons", though most ranching in the US is more then likely done on mass scale by corporate farms and not by small ranchers.

A few substitutes for beef include Elk and Deer and other game animals, which has been covered here before, though one does have to wonder why, even in the early yrs of a new century, such game is not allowed via various laws, to be sold or traded?

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