‘Something isn’t right’:
U.S. probes soaring beef prices
Politico,
by
Leah Nylen
&
Liz Crampton
Original Article
Posted By: MissMolly,
5/26/2020 5:09:50 AM
Supermarket customers are paying more for beef than they have in decades during the coronavirus pandemic. But at the same time, the companies that process the meat for sale are paying farmers and ranchers staggeringly low prices for cattle.
Now, the Agriculture Department and prosecutors are investigating whether the meatpacking industry is fixing or manipulating prices.
The Department of Justice is looking at the four largest U.S. meatpackers — Tyson Foods, JBS, National Beef and Cargill — which collectively control about 85 percent of the U.S. market for the slaughter and packaging of beef, according to a person with knowledge of the probe. The USDA is also investigating the beef price fluctuations,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Petronius 5/26/2020 5:35:22 AM (No. 422075)
Surely it can't be our phoney-baloney market stifling mandates and rules.
17 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
JayD 5/26/2020 5:49:49 AM (No. 422079)
It's about time. Meat prices in stores have been disconnected from livestock prices for years. Livestock prices fluctuate, but meat prices constantly go up without ever having any downward changes. The oligopoly of large meatpackers is definitely manipulating prices.
30 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 5/26/2020 6:19:58 AM (No. 422101)
If the Tyson's are involved, look closely.
27 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 5/26/2020 7:25:06 AM (No. 422138)
The US Department of Agriculture regulations put the small custom butchering plants out of business about 20 years ago.
18 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
EJKrausJr 5/26/2020 7:31:33 AM (No. 422141)
Corruption in the supply chain, say it isn't so. Why is this not a surprise? Break up the big four meat companies. Antitrust violations abound. Bring the foreign supply chains home. Correct the domestic supply chains as well. POTUS has his greatest challenge ahead, correct all of our supply chains.
18 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
philsner 5/26/2020 7:37:30 AM (No. 422145)
If the price goes too high, people will eat something else. If you don't like the price, don't buy the product!
QUIT WHINING KAREN!
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Muguy 5/26/2020 7:38:32 AM (No. 422147)
Economics 101: Supply and Demand.
When things are scarce or difficult to gave, prices go up.
When there is plentiful supply prices tend to go down.
Several years ago, the price of pork bottomed out and we cheap.
Beef producers, like the farmers always have a difficult time making a profit. They don't make out like bandits, as many in media would have you believe.
EVERYTHING seems to have gone up during the Nobama regime, and much of it was the cost of transporting goods due to near $4 a gallon fuel, all the while the price per pound and thinner boxes and can weights per product were quite striking.
The domestic production of oil has very much helped the economy, but the beef producer still has to feed cattle that cannot be processed fast enough.
11 people like this.
Couldn’t be due to the added costs of labor as processors shut down and other plants have to pick up slack...and then there’s that additional “Hero Pay” everyone seems to either be demanding or expecting. Gas just jumped from 99 cents to almost two dollars despite oil prices being cut rate cheap. Why is that?
7 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Anti_democRAT 5/26/2020 8:35:19 AM (No. 422196)
last time i shopped even lower grade cuts of beef were greater than 8$/lb. i came home with chicken and pork at less than 2$/lb and let the beef supply increase. the bbq ribs were delicious.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 5/26/2020 8:43:29 AM (No. 422205)
I don't know what exactly is going on but I use a local, independent butcher for my meat. So far, his prices have stayed the same
Too high? Don't buy it. The market will eventually correct.
12 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
LadyHen 5/26/2020 9:57:37 AM (No. 422278)
This Covid mess has exposed the vulnerabilities in our meat processing industry. The president should champion deregulation that would free up local mom and pop meat processors and increase competition. That would help diversify the industry, bring more jobs into communities, break the stranglehold illegal alien loving big meat processors have on the market, make the industry more resilient in the long run, and help the consumer.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/26/2020 10:08:30 AM (No. 422296)
A neighborhood meat market run and managed by a local family that purchases meat from local farms hasn't raised their prices one cent. I would point out that many large meat processors lost a bunch of their illegal Mexican laborers and now have to pay minimum wage, which has been increased dramatically in blue states.
11 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 5/26/2020 12:11:31 PM (No. 422429)
We need to encourage every part of the country to have one or two smaller beef processing plants.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Penney 5/26/2020 6:45:10 PM (No. 422861)
Our butcher told us today that the price of brisket, ''goes up by the hour!'' The demand for beef remains about the same so why doesn't the price?
0 people like this.
Sorry, but I am still wondering why bananas cost the same as when gas was $4 a gallon. That story didn't pan out either. Sure hope everybody hoarding beef bought a compressor with their stimulus check. Hurricane season is June 1.
1 person likes this.
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