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"Go To The Stores And Stock Up On Meat Now
Because The US Cattle Herd Hit Lowest Level In 61 Years"
By Epic Economist
"Get prepared to eat a lot less beef this year because the size of the national cattle herd has shrunk, and now livestock producers are warning that there won’t be enough meat supplies to meet demand in the months ahead. Prices are also expected to explode, and of course, all of this is happening in the context of a much larger crisis that is turning not only America’s but the world’s food supply chain upside down.
Our food supply is steadily shrinking, and now we’re clearly starting to see the effects of drought, crop failures, and the massive loss of cattle herds in our food systems. In fact, the latest biannual report from the USDA shows that the national beef cow herd has dropped to 89.3 million, marking the lowest level since 2015. Of that number, 38.3 million cows and heifers have just calved. Today, there are only 28.9 million beef cows in the U.S. food system, which are those explicitly bred for slaughter and meat sales. That figure is down nearly four percent from last year and the lowest the agency has recorded since 1962.
The problem is that in 1962, only 184 million people lived in the United States. And right now, roughly 331 million live in America. If back then, the fall in the number of beef cows caused shortages and pushed prices to soar, we have every reason to believe that the same is going to happen in 2023. At the moment, many everyday Americans may not be realizing the gravity of this supply crunch just yet because we are still buying and consuming cattle that were slaughtered some time ago.
But it won’t take too long before inventories start to run dry all over the country, says Beef Magazine editor Ryan McGeeney. With beef availability projected to decline sharply in 2023, and beef demand remaining on solid footing, the most recent USDA monthly estimates peg the domestic per-person beef supply to decline by 5.6% next year. If this occurs, it will be the largest annual decline in U.S. consumer beef availability since 1987.
So if you don’t want to eat less meat, securing your supply now is crucial. In 2003, when the supply dropped by 4%, prices jumped nearly 25%. The same happened in 2011, when a 3.9% decline in supplies led to a 20% price increase, and in 2014 when a 3.7% reduction contributed to a 23% price jump. According to Restaurant Dive, we could be looking at a similar price spike for beef in 2023, which already rose by 22% from 2020 to 2022. Beef prices are expected to go up by 21% this summer. No wonder why the corporate media is already calling beef “a luxury meat".
The cattle sell-off can also result in the closure of thousands more small, local meat producers, as they are unable to compete with larger, more established players in the industry. This will be a continuation of over 100,000 small farms closing down in America due to the odds being stacked against them and low-quality, imported goods flooding the market, Beef Magazine highlights.
It is safe to say that this is just the beginning of a much larger crisis that will shake the world to the core. Global food production is dropping precipitously due to climate change. Farmers are running out of topsoil, fertilizer supplies are getting insanely tight, and diseases are decimating livestock all around the U.S. Don’t be mistaken: the people in power know exactly what is about to happen, but they aren’t saying a thing because they don’t want to alarm the general public. But we need to keep our eyes open and start making preparations for ourselves because, at the end of the day, we will be on our own."
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