No Help Needed With "Beef Inflation”

An article by Nevil Speer on Beef Magazine

In a previous column, I addressed the recent Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche / Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins press conference. However, that column didn’t address the mention of “beef inflation” during the press conference. The snippets, attributable to Director of Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro, go like this (emphasis mine):

• “At the White House, there is no more important war on the economic front than the war on inflation. … One of the biggest problems we have is inflation in beef. Inflation in beef.”

• “A small herd and high concentration ratio are recipe for exactly the kind of beef inflation we get getting.”

Given that political rhetoric above, AND the brouhaha surrounding beef tariffs of late, it’s important to address the topic. Let’s wrestle with it from several angles.

What is the price of beef? What typically gets referenced stems from USDA’s Meat Price Spread data series. USDA’s retail price series is derived from monthly survey data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the purpose of calculating the Consumer Price Index.

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