Why is ground meat so expensive?

[leowis1]

This has blind sided me. Ground chicken cost 4.25lb!? This used to cost around $2lb!

WHAT HAPPENED?

 

[deakam]

quantitative easing and food stamp recipients don't care how much it costs....

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Lots of things. Corn is more expensive because a lot of it is being used to make fuel. So farmers have to spend more to feed their animals. And gas prices are a lot higher so that impacts the cost to get the food from the farm to the store. There's plenty of other factors but these are the first two that come to mind.

 

[tchrrx]

I know! I was shocked when I spent $25 on a large package today. I will be portioning it out and making as many meals as possible for sure!

 

[davmill]

Everything goes up...except our wages. To much debt in this country and resources are diminishing.

 

[mrsklamc]

People demanded that 'pink slime' stopped being used.

 

[disneysnowflake]

At the store, according to the sales flyer, it's cheaper to buy a roast than it is to buy ground beef pound for pound.
Ground beef is the last of the last as far as meat quality goes.
Remember when it was cheap to make your family Hamburger Helper? Not so much anymore. I can buy chicken and make "real" food for cheaper than Hamburger Helper now, but maybe it's just my stores.
We'd be a meat-less house here if it wasn't for my carnivorous husband.

 

[worm761]

I bought a meat grinder and started grinding my own. I can control how much fat goes in it at a fraction of the cost they want to charge. And no pink slime.

 

[formill]

I've been really noticing this here too.......ground beef used to be a stand by cheap meal here.......now I can buy boneless chicken breasts at Wal Mart in the states for $1.97 a pound....that was on sale but their frozen is always a pretty good deal too.....why is boneless fresh chicken breasts so much cheaper than ground beef???? I don't get it.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Grain prices are up, fuel prices are up, pink slime is down, people want lean beef that is not full of fillers, grazing cattle/feeding cattle is more expensive than feeding chickens, chickens can be caged one on top of another and so it is cheaper. If you really want to know the explanation look at a few food documentaries. Learn the process for getting food to the table. There is a reason grass fed beef is more expensive than grain fed and a reason why cow is more expensive than chicken.

 

[AntePrincess]

This has blind sided me. Ground chicken cost 4.25lb!? This used to cost around $2lb!

WHAT HAPPENED?

2007-2008 World Food Price Crisis, with prices peaking again in 2011 without substantially decreasing at any time. Pair this with sticky pricing at grocery stores and more disasters (drought and wildfires in our bread basket), you can expect food prices will rise to peak again when the current crops are supposed to hit the market.

As for why ground meat is substantially more expensive than a roast meat: it's more in demand because people don't cook roasts as often, it requires higher processing which has increasingly expensive (and increasingly necessary thanks to feed lotting and superbugs) hygiene regulations, and a shorter shelf life, due partly to the longer period of manufacture.

We have a KitchenAid meat grinder attachment we use when we want to make double ground meat filling for meat ravioli or homemade meatloaf. It really doesn't add much time, and since we buy our meat in larger cuts at Costco, it is very affordable.

 

[canopynut66]

I am so old I remember when I bought ground beef 3# for $1.00 and when chicken hit 25 cents a # I was dumbfounded. when we sit around and talk and I tell the kids now grown and grandkids that $20 is all I send for a weeks groceries they all look at me like I nuts.. but when I spend $80 like say at Xmas as having all over for dinner the whole back of the station wagon was full of food. I am 68 now and $30 for just me is hard to do..

 

[AntePrincess]

I am so old I remember when I bought ground beef 3# for $1.00 and when chicken hit 25 cents a # I was dumbfounded. when we sit around and talk and I tell the kids now grown and grandkids that $20 is all I send for a weeks groceries they all look at me like I nuts.. but when I spend $80 like say at Xmas as having all over for dinner the whole back of the station wagon was full of food. I am 68 now and $30 for just me is hard to do..

I must be getting domestic, the idea of $80 filling a station wagon with food for Christmas is just mind blowing to me. We haven't been able to pull off or justify a feast like that for any holiday in years, it sounds like the land of Cockaigne to me from here in the 2010s. I look back on early 2006 when we were just starting out, money was flush, and food was cheap, when we had steak and roast diners two or three times a week, then winter of 2008, pregnant with our second, money tight, and prices jumping when I was saving vegetable peelings for soup stock and eating lentils six nights a week. How fast everything changes!

 

[poorunfortunatesouls]

Give up meat, then you won't have to worry about it!

 

[QVCshopper]

This is why I love Wegmans. I buy their soon to expire meat, come home, and freeze it. Last week, I got 6 lbs of 90/10 ground beef for $1.49/lb. today, I bought beef kabobs, marinated with veggies, for $4/lb and Greek turkey burgers for $2. Everyone tells me Wegmans is expensive, but it's an amazing store and I love it. And, I buy the already prepared meat because it is definitely easier for us with a baby. No one seems to buy this type of meat, so I buy every pack there is... It's still very fresh. For anyone who has ever shopped at a Wegmans, you know how nice they are.

 

[OopsieDaisies]

If any of you guys do price matching at walmart, you can match the rates of other local grocery stores. I live just outside Dallas where there are a ton of Hispanic markets that offer majorly discounted meat. We are just at the edge of the 50 mile radius for most, which makes it nearly impossible to drive and shop at these stores. A lady comes to my local post office with all of the ads once a week and charges $5 a bundle. I will sit down with a notebook and pen and write down what is on sale, where and how much. I ALWAYS take the ads to the store with me so there is no dispute. The last time I stocked up on ground beef I got the 1lb pkgs for. 99 each. I will buy 20 or so pks and put it in the deep freeze until the next sale. I have not paid more than 1.00 per pound for beef, pork chops or chicken breast in months.

 

[LockShockBarrel]

You just have to take into consideration everything that goes into livestock. Not only is it just the feed cost and fuel cost going up, that issue has turned into a lot of farmers saying "I can't do this anymore, it's just too expensive".

Expect to see meat go up 3%-5% at least through the rest of the year.

And I always check for Wegmans "today's special" stickers.

 

[tasha99]

One reason I prefer ground moose!

 

[AntePrincess]

Give up meat, then you won't have to worry about it!

Or hunt, of course.

 

[Muushka]

I buy a whole sirloin tip. Last time I think I paid about $2.49 a lb, maybe a little less.
Then I have them trip the fat and grind it.
Ground sirloin for bargain price.