https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/drought/201507
Based on the Palmer Drought Index, severe to extreme drought affected about 14 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of July 2015, a little less than last month. About 24 percent of the contiguous U.S. fell in the severely to extremely wet categories.
The cost of beef generally has gone through the roof, not just hamburger. Hamburger is not really the same as beef, for economic survey purposes though. About half of hamburger comes from dairy beef. Although CA is the #1 dairy state in the US, dairy production in CA is declining because of environmentalist pressure being applied to dairy farms, which, unlike nut and grape growers [and many others] have plenty of places they can move to outside of California. And they are. But it doesn't make that much difference anyway. Most dairy beef doesn't come from drought country, but from the Northeastern US and Upper midwest.
Higher beef costs across the board are a function of the cost of feed, and US energy policy is a part of that problem. It is simply INSANE to mandate the production of corn ethanol when corn is our #1 grain product. Corn cereals and sugars are used in all kinds of food, and turning good food into bad fuel drives up the price of corn and all foods and animal products.
ok, great points on drought having no impact.
But I’m not sure ethanol is to blame here, b/c ethanol mandates haven’t gone up anywhere in a decade unless I’ve missed something?
So it may well be that the spike in beef is due to the cost of feed...but if beef is at an all time high, where is the price of corn? I can’t say I’ve followed that actually. Is it also at or near an all time high?
So back to the point of beef, and the price of feed, the price of corn, etc.
I just saw this from an NYT article;
“Corn, the most valuable crop in the country, has fallen to $3.78 a bushel from $7.50 three years ago.”
So I’m not sure I understand. If corn costs half what it was three years ago, then unless beef cow feed is something other than corn (I don’t really know), then the cost of feed should be going down, also.
Something tells me that our whole system is a bit chaotic, and there’s not easy answers to a lot of these questions.
But we do know this:
beef is up.
gasoline is down (and crude is down).
coffee is up.
eggs were up earlier this year (bird flu).
That accounts for most of my purchases right there.....