RSSHigher Feed Costs Means More Expensive Meat and Poultry
Mar 09
Business, Society and Culture Food, Food prices, Poultry Comments Off
A chain reaction in agriculture has the cost of meat and chicken on the rise. Ethanol fuel that is blended with gasoline uses corn, and last year consumed 20 percent of the corn crop. The rising demand for corn in ethanol production is affecting feed costs of chickens and cows by making it more expensive to feed livestock.
Meat and poultry producers, in the face of higher feed costs, must decide on between lowering production of meat and poultry which will raise the cost to consumers because demand will remain unchanged, or pass along the costs to consumers of the higher corn prices in order to meet demand. Either way, cost for chicken and meat at the grocery store is on the rise, according to the National Chicken Council, even though the cost of the corn itself is stable.
But even that is not a given as U.S. Agriculture Department is reporting the effects of the January freeze on both the California corn crop and the Florida crop, which combined could result in an 18 percent reduction in production this season over last season.
