prices

Meat counter prices rising to ‘spook zone’ levels: food expert – Winnipeg

As barbecue season simmers down, the cost of meat is still rising across Canada, even as year-to-year demand wanes.

Several culprits are pushing the upward-trending price tags, food distribution professor Sylvain Charlebois told Global News on Friday.

“We’re slowly reaching the spook zone at the meat counter,” said Charlebois, who also serves as the director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab.

“In fact, we’re starting to see numbers that suggest that Canadians are absolutely walking away from the meat counter,” he said.

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In terms of volume, beef sales are down six per cent from last year’s figures, and chicken and pork are down 12 and 17 per cent, respectively, Charlebois said, so much so he initially wondered whether software was erring.

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Canadians are shying away from the meat counter likely because of higher prices, he said, but also because of a rise in plant protein options.

“People are more tempted to go for lentils or chickpeas, which are most likely much cheaper than beef, pork or chicken right now,” Charlebois said.

Chicken prices remain the most stable, with increases of only around one to two per cent, he said. However, beef prices are up nine to 10 per cent, depending on the cut, with pork up about five per cent.

Drought is leaving its mark on the market, Charlebois said.

“The last 12 weeks for livestock has

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Global weather disruptions, food commodity prices, and economic activity

Global weather disruptions, food commodity prices, and economic activity: A global warning for advanced countries

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects a significant rise in the frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves and heavy rainfall (IPCC 2021). The direct local economic repercussions of such events are considered to be greater in low-income countries because these countries typically already have hotter climates, which implies that ecosystems are closer to their biophysical limits, and have less access to technology that can mitigate the consequences of extreme weather. Moreover, most low-income countries have very high shares of agriculture in economic activity, which is the most vulnerable sector to weather shocks (Nordhaus 2006, Dell et al. 2012, Noy 2012, Tol 2015, Cruz and Rossi-Hansberg 2021). Since poor countries have to bear the bulk of the climate change burden, it is often argued that this acts as a disincentive for rich economies to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions (Althor et al. 2016).

However, the rise in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events around the globe, as well as crop diseases and pests due to climate change, could also have an impact on the economic performance of countries that are not directly exposed to the extreme events through global agricultural production shortfalls and surges in food commodity prices. Specifically, since global production of the most important crops is concentrated in a small number of major producing regions that are vulnerable to extreme weather conditions, the IPCC

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Trending Headlines: Drought, markets, food prices & grasshoppers

This week’s Trending Headlines highlights the ongoing challenges facing ranchers in the western states including swarms of grasshoppers and increasing drought conditions. We also take a look at cattle markets and rising food and fuel prices. The blog wraps up with a look at Biden’s executive order to address competition in various industries, as well as an update on the farmer debt forgiveness program and the response from producers across the country.

1. “Cattle are competing against grasshoppers for food in the West’s historic drought. The bugs are winning.” by Rachel Ramirez for CNN

Ramirez writes, “Against the backdrop of unprecedented heat waves and deadly wildfires, the West’s historic drought has ranchers fighting another problem besides water shortages: a prolific hoard of grasshoppers is competing with cattle for food.

“Around 93% of the West is in some level of drought this week, and a bizarre impact of this pernicious dry condition is the explosion of the grasshopper population. Grasshoppers have devoured so much vegetation that many ranchers fear rangelands could be stripped bare.

“A 2021 grasshopper hazard map from the USDA shows each square yard of land contains at least 15 grasshoppers in parts of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska.”

2. “Cattle markets have been upended, and big meat producers are making 20 times normal margins as beef prices soar” by Ethan Wu for Business Insider

Wu writes,

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As food prices soar, big agriculture is having a field day

TROUBLE IS BREWING in America. The reopening economy’s hunger for goods from China, and for the containers that carry them, has left importers of coffee, of which the average American guzzles two cups a day, struggling to ship the stuff from Brazil. They are using whatever they can get, says Janine Mansour of Port of New Orleans, where much of America’s raw coffee lands. That includes much bigger boxes, which reach the maximum allowed weight before they are full. Importing part-empty containers adds extra costs, Ms Mansour says, and these will ultimately be swallowed by consumers.

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It isn’t just coffee prices in America that are rising. Transport logjams and paltry harvests in producing regions have conspired with surging demand to stoke food inflation across the smorgasbord. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) expects the value of global food imports to reach nearly $1.9trn this year, up from $1.6trn in 2019 (see chart). In May its index of main soft commodities hit its highest value since 2011, after rising for 12 straight months. Another benchmark index, by S&P Global, a research firm, has risen by over 50% since July 2020. On July 22nd the boss of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch maker of everything from Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to Hellmann’s mayonnaise, said that pricier raw materials have caused his firm’s

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