Posted on 08/20/2014 5:47:09 AM PDT by xzins
(CNSNews.com) The average price for all types of ground beef per pound hit its all-time high -- $3.884 per pound -- in the United States in July, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
That was up from $3.880 per pound in June. A year ago, in July 2013, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.459 per pound. Since then, the average price for a pound of ground beef has gone up 42.1 cents--or about 12 percent.
Five years ago, in July 2009, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $2.147, according to the BLS. In those five years, the average price has climbed by $1.737 per pound--or almost 81 percent.
Along with the average price data, the BLS calculates a consumer price index, which is a tool that simplifies the measurement of movements in a numerical series, explains BLS. An index for 110, for example, means there has been a 10-percent increase in price since the reference period.
beef
The consumer price index for seasonally adjusted uncooked ground beef was 270.724 in July, which is down slightly from the all-time high of 271.726 in the previous month of June. When BLS began tracking this index in January of 1947, the index stood at 26.5.
The CPI is simply the average change over time in prices paid by consumers for a market basket of goods and services.
The seasonally-adjusted price index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs also hit an all-time high in July, according to BLS.
In January 1967, when the BLS started tracking this measure, the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs was 38.1. As of last July, it was 236.147. By this January, it hit 240.006. By June, it hit 253.318. And, in July, it climbed to a record 254.174.
The food index rose 0.4 percent in July, its fifth increase at least that large in the last 6 months, states the BLS. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs has increased 7.6 percent over the [last 12 months] and the index for dairy and related products has risen 4.3 percent.
I moved to my current location in 1972. I could buy all the choice T-bone I wanted for $.78 a pound and it was better quality than you can buy now. I don’t even know what it costs now because I never buy any. There was a little seafood place here where you could go in the evening and have all the fresh flounder you could eat with all the trimmings and ice tea for $1.69. The sales tax was three cents on the dollar. There was a gas war on and regular gas was $.19 and 9/10. If food were to be taxed at the same rate as other things now the sales tax would be well over what the entire cost was then. My new job was paying me around six hundred a month before tax plus expenses and I had no problems paying the bills and we ate T-bone any time we felt like it. Now you need a thousand a week to go hungry.
Yep, ground turkey is the same price.
Would roadkill meet the Halal standard?
Raccoon is making it to the table
Raccoon, which made the first edition of The Joy of Cooking in 1931, is labor-intensive but well worth the time, aficionados say.
"Good things come to those who wait," says A. Reed, 86, who has been eating raccoon since she was a girl.
Raccoons go for $3 to $7 each, not per pound and will feed about five adults. Four, if they're really hungry.
At most of the stores around here, hamburger is $5.00 a pound or more.
Hasn't happened around here yet. Corn on the cob is about 65-80 cents an ear. At this time of the year in the recent past, it's usualy 20-25 cents.
Beef isn’t at an all time high, the dollar is at an all time low.
Buy larger packages.
Sams Club:
4.5 lbs or more: $3.29/lb for 80% (best for grilling), $3.59/lb for 90% (best for non-grilling recipes) all Angus. And that is Connecticut prices.
Bring it home, divide into small portions.
Sweet corn is different than field corn.
We are below $4 a bushel. Last year it was above $7.
That is why John Deere just laid off their harvester division.
The skyrocketing costs of all types of food, not just beef, is one of the many hidden costs of Obama's social and economic policies like ObamaCare and his determination to destroy the coal industry and drive energy costs as high as possible.
The cost of every phase of food production from the cost of buying seed, tilling the land, processing the products and delivering them to the stores has increased because of the hidden taxes he has imposed and the hidden costs of his insane social and economic policies.
Not so long ago we read that tax money taken in by the federal government is at an all time high. That is the addition money that is now sucked out of the economy at every business transaction by Obama's policies.
The money for his grand wealth redistribution programs comes out of the higher prices we pay for everything we do and every product we use.
I can get it for $2.99/pound for 85% lean.
I buy my beef by the side from Mount Aerial Beef in Kentucky. I get steaks, roasts, and plenty of ground beef. In the end I end up paying $5.20 a pound.
In the end it’s probably on par with what you get in the store nowadays because of the T-bones and other premium meat included.
$5.20 is expensive, but I think it’s worth it, and I’m supporting a local farmer...plus I would never buy t-bones otherwise.
The Hungry Halal Cookbook says it’s ok.
The Saudi Prince Halal Cookbook says ‘no way’.
It's cheaper and helps your burger dollar go farther.
Low corn + high beef = overproduction of beef/hogs next year
But...since Russia isn’t buying (beef, pork, poultry, fish, fruit, vegetables, cheese, milk and other dairy products from the U.S., Canada, the European Union, Norway and Australia) then we can expect the low corn price to be offset.
So, I’d bet on same trajectory for beef. Corn producers will go fencerow to fencerow to make up in volume what they lose in price.
Jack Daniels and Jim Beam will be the big winners???
LOL!
My old copy of Joy gives the modern housewife pointers on skinning squirrel, and milk feeding a caged ‘possum for a few days before slaughter... the 2014 version of Joy probably instructs the modern househusband to go buy a gluten-free Stouffer’s dinner to serve the wifey after she comes home from a long day of Queen-Beeing at the office.
On sale this week in NW PA, value packs of 73% lean ground beef, $2.68/lb.
When I was a kid, we ate raccoon at my grandpa’s place in NCarolina. It was hunted, killed, skinned, and cooked. My memory says it was ok. I can’t remember much except dark and stringy.
Uh, the BLS collects inflation statistics, and this article is about the BLS collecting inflation statistics for food.
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