The High Cost of Red Meat
 

We don't eat much red meat. There is seafood and poultry served at the BamaVol table, and quite a number of meat-free meals. We also dine out frequently - usually on fresh local seafood. So imagine my surprise recently when I shopped for something different.

First was a package of hamburger a week ago. I looked for relatively low fat content (I know it has less flavor but really need to keep the meals lean for the sake of my waistline) and a package of 4 pre-made 10% fat burgers was $10. I think the weight was around 1.2 lbs. The last time I bought hamburger, I would swear it was half the price.

The second shock came Friday. I though lamb would be a nice change of pace and with Easter it should be plentiful. A 2 lb partial leg was $40. I was again expecting something about half the price.

I did buy the hamburger but passed on the lamb in favor a small ham at around $6 a pound.

When did this hyper-inflation strike the red meat business and what is behind it? Enquiring minds want to know.

I bought a 6lb boneless leg of lamb at Wegman's for Easter. $35.00. They even trimmed and butterflied it for me. Yum! You must be getting some special lamb!

There were only 2 left. Maybe there's a shortage here. I was wondering if it had anything to do with drought.

For some reason all our favourite meats are the cheapest,

Pork belly, pork fillet, lamb neck, shoulder of lamb, pork shoulder, chicken, mince beef, sausages. Only one cut is now expensive but use to be cheap and that is rib of beef. Our only steak extravagance is cote de boeuf or rib-eye.

Shhhhh. Someone might be listening.

Back in the 70's my brother in law introduced me to beef flank steak. I got the impression that if we didn't buy them, they would get turned into dog food. They became our go-to birthday dinners - each of the 4 kids would request flank steak. Somewhere along the line, maybe 10-15 years ago, somebody else discovered them and they started rising in price to the point where I began looking for something else to grill. I still buy a few once or twice a year when the kids visit, but they're not the bargain I had gotten accustomed to.

No to be flippant or anything of that sort, but if you would read, watch, whatever the news on a regular basis you would have seen plenty of stories on this.

That's true; between recent blizzard and droughts, US meat prices have been widely forecasted to be high this year. Still, the prices the OP mentioned are crazy.

$4.99/lb is the regular price, not the sale price, for (Australian or New Zealand) boneless leg of lamb at Costco. I have a 4-lb leg of lamb in the fridge that I got at Costco for $20, two dinners for two at least. The high-end grocer near me had (US) leg of lamb for $6.99/lb before Easter.

Lately I have been buying beef chuck roast when I see it for $3.99/lb; I haven't seen it for less than that it in quite a while. If you have a meat grinder or Kitchen-Aid grinder attachment at home, that's the way to stockpile burgers and ground beef in the freezer.

I haven't bought any kind of round for years, considering it too tough to bother with, but if I saw some at less than, say, $3.50/lb, I might buy some just to grind and mix with ground chuck for burgers and such.

I expect beef prices to be high all spring, summer, and fall this year, and plan to keep an eye peeled for sales and pounce on relatively low prices when possible.

p.s., I heard something on the radio this morning about the new water restrictions in California: 25% cuts, but not for agriculture (meat and produce) production, which supposedly counts for 80% of water consumption in California. I'll say no more on that because there's a thread going already in Omni and I don't want this one merged or moved there. I just wanted to comment that the radio story ended with "so we can expect higher prices for beef and wine this summer," and I thought, what makes you think we all get our beef and wine from California?

Television and radio news irritate me. I read a local newspaper and ocasionally glance at stories I come across on the internet. I had not seen this discussed. I am aware that the West has had years of drought conditions and wondered if that might be the cause. It doesn't seem to have had the same impact on poultry and pork, however. Vegetables and seafood still seem reasonably priced as well.

The California beef market does not operate in a vacuum. If costs rise in CA it could make import of TX, OK, KS, etc. beef to the west more cost effective. That will increase demand for TX, OK, KS, etc. beef - and increased demand typically means increased prices.

Heh, my mom used to make flank steak and skirt steak with some regularity. I love them!

On the other hand, I'm planning on getting better at vegetarian cooking partially for this reason.

No problem. How about a government source:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-product...-findings.aspx

Thank you, that was excellent. And nowhere in that article was I scolded or subjected to celebrity gossip.

I haven't noticed... The price of venison hasn't changed. It's free in my freezer, and the licenses and processing fees have stayed stable. :D

Packages of burger? They're easily and cheaply made without the prepackaging.

In terms of the beef industry, it's highly subjective to the global economic marketplace and that's further impacted by the primative financial capabilities of many farming companies.

Meat became very expensive after the last great recession. When the economy was down, many farmers culled their herds due to the costs of keeping them being higher than market price. Then the economy comes back. It takes a long time to increase the supply, so the price of beef really spiked.

THat said, there should be lots of information available online on cattle futures. I don't think you need to rely on a travel site for the information.

If you are going to buy ground beef, it is always cheaper to buy bulk than pre-made patties. But even so, beef prices make me cringe every time I am in a grocery store. Even a chuck roast costs a forture these days.