Flipping Burgers This Summer? They Won’t Be Cheap.
A shrinking herd is pushing the cost of meat to record highs.
Grilling burgers this summer will be expensive as a smaller herd pushes up the cost of meat.
Photograph: Archive Photos/Getty Images
I should disclose my bias from the start: I’m a carnivore. Hamburger? Check. Chops? Yes please. Steak? Yum. To my palate, all delicious and, right now, also incredibly pricey. As the barbecue season peaks, the cost of meat has jumped to an all-time high. Don’t expect relief anytime soon.
Record prices for beef may sound counterintuitive when vegetarianism seems to be on the rise. Skipping meat, and particularly beef, even if only for a few days a month is a popular trend among climate-conscious social media influencers. But the issue behind sky-high prices isn’t consumption; if anything, demand is lackluster.