Once every few months I go into other grocery stores just to check prices. I went to Acme and Costco (I'm only a Costco member because of their cat food and my vet advised against feeding them local, organic chicken. Are vets bought out by big ag? Perhaps a topic for another newsletter). I'm always surprised at what I see at these stores. The prices of non-local, conventional food are in many instances close to, the same, or higher than local, organic food, and below you'll see some pictures. I didn't bother going to Whole Foods, but I'm sure it's the same story.
Inflation has a lot to do with this. While conventional food prices have gone up, the prices at my shop have not. Inflation does not affect a local food economy in any significant way. I wrote a detailed newsletter about this phenomena a while ago, but the main reason why this is the case is the fact that conventional food revolves around a multileveled supply chain: farmers, auction houses, butchers, packers, distributers, wholesalers, and finally retailers. A price hike somewhere along the line compounds down the supply chain, especially when the price of oil inflates. With local food, it's simple: farmer then retailer. That's it. And the food is traveling a much shorter distance, so an increase in travel and refrigeration costs tied to oil are negligible.
But inflation is not the whole story. Every different type of food has it's own unique set of circumstances, but I want to explain beef because, well, I like beef.
It's partially true to say that Covid and inflation is the culprit for the rise in price of conventional beef. The pandemic shut down some of the largest meat packing facilities in the country. Ranchers thus had no place to send their beef. So supply dwindled. As a result ranchers reduced their herd size. Since it takes time to increase herd size, if that's what a rancher decides to do, conventional beef prices have remained high. But ranchers don't want to increase their herd size again. Rising prices for oil, supplies, and feed have have made the cost of business too high. As one rancher from the Nebraska has said, "we're spending $1 million to make $4,000."
But this is too simplistic an explanation. I want to focus on the feed. It's the largest expense for any ranch and feedlot. Conventional cows spend most of their lives on a ranch out on pasture eating grass. The rancher then sells the cows at an auction house to a feedlot where they are fattened up on corn/soy feed for a few months before slaughter. But over the course of the last several years there have been droughts in the Midwest and in Texas. When it doesn't rain, the grass doesn't grow. Corn/soy also doesn't yield as well, and nor do hay and alfalfa. So the ranchers, not having sufficient grass on their pastures, had to buy in alfalfa and hay, which was already inflated in price due to the droughts. And after they sold the cows at auction to the feedlot, the feedlot fed them inflated corn/soy. Multiple compounded price hikes.
That's more complex of an explanation. But we're still not at the main culprit. It's this: conventional farming practices. The pastures on most ranches are overgrazed. Ranchers have been pushing the limits of their pastures for nearly 100 years. Too many cows for far too little land. If the pastures are overgrazed and have little time to recover, they are less resilient when drought hits. The grass also has less nutrition during a drought, so the cows need to eat more of it, compounding the problem. And the very fact that the cows are fed corn/soy is the next main problem, since the fields of corn/soy are also suspectable to drought for similar reasons: most corn/soy farmers don't add compost and don't cover crop, which would increase the water holding capacity of the soil (one pound of compost added to every 100 pounds of soil increases water holding capacity by 4 gallons...that means no drought. It's so simple it's almost comical).
The main culprits of the increase in conventional beef prices are these: overgrazing and corn/soy feed. Any other explanation falls short. It's why right now at Acme ground beef costs $8/lb ($9/lb at Dave's), filet mignon costs $48/lb ($40/lb at Dave's), and NY Strips cost $25.59/lb ($25/lb at Dave's). It's why at Costco short ribs cost $13/lb ($12/lb at Dave's) and rib eyes cost $25/lb (same at Dave's).
Though the main thing that I encourage you to takeaway here is the fact that overgrazing and corn/soy feed artificially lower the price of beef to begin with. That's not even mentioning corn/soy subsidies.
That's the story with beef. Every one of the products pictured below has its own story. I'll share them another day.
"Pastured" eggs at Acme $8.49 vs Real pastured eggs for $7 at Dave's
Short ribs at Costco for $13/lb vs $12/lb at Dave's
Chicken wings at Acme $4.49/lb vs $5/lb at Dave's
Chicken thigh at Costco $6/lb vs same at Dave's
Yogurt at Acme $5.19 vs $6 at Dave's
Honeycrisp apples at Acme $3.99/lb at Acme vs $3/lb at Dave's
Cheddars for $9 at Acme vs $7 at Dave's
Turkey bacon for $8 at Acme vs same at Dave's
Ground beef $8/lb vs $9/lb at Dave's
Feta $18.64 at Acme vs $18/lb at Dave's
Duck eggs $4.79 at Acme (with a messed up label no less come on Acme) vs $5 at Dave's
Bacon $15.38/Lb vs $14/lb at daves
Chicken breast $9/lb at Acme vs $10/lb at Dave's