The Strange Economics Behind Your $8 Hamburger

Beef is expensive. Cattle prices are at historic highs. Ranchers are finally getting paid more for their animals. So why is the U.S. cattle herd still the smallest it’s been in 75 years? Why are giant meatpackers losing hundreds of millions of dollars and closing plants? And why are smaller ranchers still struggling to find somewhere to process their cattle?

In this solo episode, Dana follows the beef supply chain from pasture to meat counter to understand a moment when almost every part of the system seems to be telling a different story. Years of drought shrank the herd. Rebuilding takes time, land is increasingly expensive, New World screwworm has disrupted cattle movement from Mexico, and enormous processing plants built for volume are suddenly competing for too few animals.

But there’s another beef system operating alongside that one. Small and midsized ranchers can have cattle and customers and still lack access to the regional processing they need. The result is a strange American beef paradox: too much processing capacity in some places, not enough in others, record prices for cattle, record prices for consumers, and plenty of pressure in between.

It’s a story about beef, but it’s also about what happens when efficiency, scale and resilience aren’t the same thing.

Learn more and support farmer grants at For Farmers Movement. Follow along @xoxofarmgirl.