You may have looked at your receipt recently after checking out at the grocery store and wondered “Why is my bill so high when I’ve been buying the same products for months?” Here’s the simple answer for you: Meat prices have gone up 10.5%  in the past year. This increase in price for poultry is due to multiple factors, including shortages, and more people are switching to plant-based diets during the pandemic. People have grown more concerned about their health since the pandemic began, and this especially includes aspects of diet. Lock down in 2020 allowed for people to (literally) sit and evaluate their decisions when it came to lifestyle and health choices, with many people reconsidering what they eat, especially when it comes to meat. When we reached the summer of 2020, plant-based food sales more than doubled (+243 percent),with consumers putting 14 percent more meat-free and dairy-free options in their baskets. 

The decrease in meat sales has allowed for meat corporations to increase their prices in order to keep up with shortages, transportation costs, and overall decreases in sales. Belcampo Meat Company was recently caught in a scandal of their own this year. It was leaked by an ex-employee for the company that the meat they were selling was not local or organic like promised, and they were selling them for almost 4 times the price they bought them at. Belcampo took pride in promising their customers local, high quality and organic meat but were actually selling cuts sold by other companies. An instagram post by an ex Belcampo employee revealed that the meat they were selling was actually being shipped in from places like Tasmania and Montana, but the company was promising customers that it was locally slaughtered in California. The Instagram post showed a slab of meat they had been selling being labeled as “100% grass-fed organic” for $47.99 a pound, although they had bought it originally for only $10 a pound and it was actually corn-fed, not grass fed or organic. Following the leak of these actions, Belcampo has closed all locations of their restaurants, and have also deactivated all their social media accounts. 

As the prices for meat continue to rise, farmers are struggling as the cost to feed their animals is higher than the price they receive for the animal. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused meat processing companies to slow down their production because they don’t have as much cattle being brought in. The 2020 and 2021 drought is also to blame for the decline in meat production. Cattle have had to graze under drought conditions for the past two years. With the lack of nutrients, most cattle have been weighing in about 15 pounds less than average. Major companies like Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef have gained control over the entire industry and have the ability to keep prices high and prevent any other competitors from having a chance to keep up or even compete in the meat industry. These four companies process more than 80% of the country’s beef supply, and possess power over the entire meat industry. This is why supporting smaller meat companies and businesses is so important, especially ones that raise their animals grass-fed and free range. You may be paying more than you would at a grocery store, however you’re paying for quality taste and quality raised meat.