Beef and pork prices retreat while grocery prices climb
Grocery prices will rise 7.8 percent this year, three times the usual pace for food inflation albeit slower than in 2022, said USDA economists in the monthly Food Price Outlook.
As meat plants slow, U.S. will help growers kill livestock
The government offered to help livestock producers locate contractors skilled in killing herds or flocks of animals and to provide cost-share funding for their disposal because the coronavirus pandemic has shut down packing plants and reduced consumer demand. The National Pork Board held a webinar on Sunday that discussed step by step "emergency depopulation and disposal" of hogs.(No paywall)
At U.S. mealtime, a few more burgers and chops than chicken nuggets
Per-capita consumption of meat will climb again this year, according to USDA estimates, up a bit more than 1 percent from 2016 to average out at 217.2 pounds. This time, Americans will proportionally eat more red meat — beef, pork and lamb — than poultry, such as chicken and turkey, but it will be close.
Critics in Canada and U.S. lambast WHO cancer agency
Meatpackers in Canada are raising the same question as some U.S. House Republicans: Why does our government fund the International Agency for Research on Cancer? The IARC, based in France, has riled the pesticide and meat industries with recent rulings about the cancer risk of some of their …
House panel questions U.S. support of WHO cancer agency
The National Institutes of Health has given the International Agency for Research on Cancer more than $1.2 million so far this year, says Chairman Jason Chaffetz of the House Oversight Committee. In a letter to the NIH director, Chaffetz blasts the IARC, part of the World Health Organization, for "controversy, retractions and inconsistencies," using its rulings on glyphosate and red meat as examples.
Americans are slow to change meat-eating habits
Americans have one of the highest per-capita rates of meat consumption in the world, says the NPR blog The Salt, pegging red meat consumption at 71 pounds a year.
Dietary Guidelines touch off a food fight
A week after the government issued the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, "nutritionists, public health specialists and experts in preventive health are vying to critique the government document, fill in its gaps and 'spin' the guidelines to support their interests," says the Los Angeles Times.
New Dietary Guidelines endorse lean meat, warn against added sugars
The new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans will be released today, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He declined to discuss the contents of the report, which distills the government's advice about healthy diets, or how it would be released.
WHO agency finds cancer hazard in processed and red meat
The WHO's cancer agency, in a decision certain to intensify the debate over the American diet, classified processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" and red meat as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
WHO cancer agency to assess red meat in October
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO agency, plans a meeting from Oct. 6-13 in Lyon, France, to discuss red meat and processed meat.
Small impact on red meat from bird flu export bans
Export restrictions on U.S. poultry, imposed because of outbreaks of avian influenza, are not likely to have a significant impact on the beef sector, said USDA chief economist Robert Johannson. "At this point, it doesn't appear to be an issue." A couple of dozen countries have imposed full or partial bans on U.S. poultry. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told senators the bans affect roughly 15 percent of poultry exports and that the USDA was to keep shipments moving.
Goat, the other red meat
Sustained high prices for beef are leading to creative changes to restaurant menus - such as the addition of goat meat, "an alternative, and normally budget-friendly, option to beef," reports Reuters.
US meat consumption rate is down 9 pct in a decade
Americans are consuming 9 pct less red meat and poultry per person than a decade ago, the result of rising prices and lower production. The 2007/08 recession also was a factor. Per capita consumption is estimated for 200.6 lbs this year, compared to 222 lbs in 2004, according to the Agriculture Department.