‘Who Do You Want Controlling Your Food?’

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.5 • 97.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the pandemic, the price of beef shot up. Wholesale beef prices increased more than 40 percent — more than 70 percent for certain cuts of steak. The conventional wisdom was that price increases simply reflected the chaos that the coronavirus had caused in the supply chain. But there’s evidence that they were in fact a reflection of a more fundamental change in the meatpacking business. We speak to ranchers about the consolidation of the industry and explore what it can show us about a transformation in the American economy — one much bigger than beef.

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0:00.0	Today's episode of The Daily is sponsored by BetterHelp.
0:03.5	Why not take the next 10 seconds to focus on your breath, whatever you are doing, wherever
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0:33.0	Okay, front the top.
0:34.4	Alright, here we go.
0:36.8	I'm Peter Goodman and I write about the global economy for the New York Times.
0:40.8	And during the pandemic, I started to notice something.
0:44.5	Customers are now paying more than ever.
0:46.8	For beef, beef was getting a lot more expensive.
0:50.0	Retail prices at record highs, right?
0:52.0	In 2021, wholesale beef prices shot up worth at 40%.
0:56.4	And certain cuts of stake increased by more than 70%.
1:00.2	Meat lovers beware.
1:01.9	Now the conventional wisdom was that the beef industry was just reflecting the chaos of the
1:06.3	pandemic.
	...

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