[SaxxonWoods]

With hamburger at $7 a pound red meat consumption is down.

The question is why red meat is that expensive compared to chicken and pork.

[jjotto]

Hog and chicken production can respond to market conditions in a three or so months. Cattle production takes about two years to respond.

[Little Pig]

Supply. The beef herd is at a multi-decade low right now. It’s horrifically expensive to be a beef cattle rancher. Most of the big ranches have shut down because the money just isn’t there. These days, most individual ranch herds are 30-50 cattle, and those ranchers are just barely scraping by as well.

On top of that, the supply low-spot caused by that big storm kill a couple of years ago, and a herd cull that happened at the same time, are now impacting the end-consumer part of the market. Herd numbers are starting to climb again, finally, but I’ve got expert assurance that it will never reach the numbers it did 10 years ago.

On a more general note, I’ve come to the mostly-unscientific conclusion that humans are obligate omnivores. All the greenies make a big deal about us being omnivores, and then use that to justify their all-veg diet, saying that since we can get away with eating anything, we are fine just eating vegetables. However, as others have pointed out, without meat we couldn’t have become what we are now. I say that we *have* to eat at least some meat, just as we *have* to eat at least some plant-based and animal-sourced (cheese, milk, eggs) foods.

[nathanbedford]

Beef is more expensive than chicken or pork because it takes more acres to produce a pound of beef, a fact which tells us that if all 7 billion mouths which want to eat every day suddenly could afford beef its price would skyrocket or more more acres would have to be devoted to raising cows and fewer and fewer desirable and arable land sections would be available for human habitation,for cultivation or for pigs and chickens, Parks and Recreation, timber production, watersheds.

Something to consider for those who advocate mindlessly expanding population through unrestricted immigration or otherwise thus unavoidably intensifying population density. Conservatives are aware that there is an inverse relationship between population and liberty, especially between population density and liberty.

Caveat: there is a world of difference between deploring population growth and advocating restricting birthrates or abortion. Such a policy is raw tyranny and should be opposed. Equally should mindlessly seeking to shore up Social Security with population growth, that is to resort to a Ponzi scheme to bail out a Ponzi scheme. Likewise, to advocate population growth to sustain an economy in a globalized world, in an increasingly automated world, in a world of drones and robots, is obviously to go in the wrong direction.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“With hamburger at $7 a pound “

You need to shop somewhere else. About half that for good quality product (not the cheap 20% fat stuff) where I am.

[Graybeard58]

The question is why red meat is that expensive compared to chicken and pork.

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Oscar Meyer bacon @ $6 per pound ain’t cheap pork.