Ivy Pepin
With meat and egg prices soaring, it’s a great time to incorporate more plant-based food into our diets—for the animals, for the planet, and for our wallets.
You probably don’t need to look at the news to know that food prices are sky-high right now. But if you do, you’ll see that grocery prices have swelled 11.9% over the last year—the largest increase since spring of 1979. Impacting lower-income families the hardest, this price increase has been largely driven by the cost of meat and eggs.
Meat producers point fingers at a multitude of factors: increased freight costs and feed prices, supply chain disruptions, high demand, and inflation. But there might be even more to the story.
According to some consumer protection groups, as well as President Biden, meat companies may be guilty of price gouging—dialing up their prices well beyond the demands of inflation. And far from being a temporary problem, it appears that meat prices are only going to keep going up. A new report from Fitch Ratings shows that meat producers are especially vulnerable to the worsening impacts of climate change, as demonstrated by ranchers’ battles with drought throughout the western US. With climate impacts here to stay, it seems that exorbitant meat prices may be, too.
So while the reasons for today’s high prices are complex, one thing is clear: The systemic issues within the meat, dairy, and egg industries aren’t going away. This latest surge in food prices only goes to show that continued exploitation of animals and the environment is not sustainable. Incorporating more plant-based staples into our diets—like bread, pasta, legumes, fruits, and veggies—can help us build a more resilient food system from the ground up, especially in the face of future challenges to come.
The true price of meat and eggs
While today’s high food prices can’t be reduced to any singular cause, there are a few major market disruptions driving up the price of meat and eggs. Together, a multitude of factors have created a “perfect storm” that’s now showing up on supermarket shelves. But many of these foods carry hidden costs even beyond the high price tag.
Avian influenza
Since January of this year, US egg producers have trapped over 14 million hens in airless barns, heated them to above 104°F, and slowly roasted them to death. (If you think this sounds like the most inhumane way possible to euthanize chickens, that’s because it is.)
The practice is called ventilation shutdown, and it’s a “depopulation” method being used by the egg industry in a desperate attempt to contain a highly infectious avian flu impacting egg production facilities worldwide. Unfortunately, even with these drastic measures to curb its spread, the flu has already seeped into Americans’ daily lives—mainly in the form of soaring egg prices.
Egg prices have increased a whopping 32.2% since last year, and while rising chicken feed prices and freight costs have played a role, the avian flu (and subsequent cullings) are largely to blame. Additionally, eggs are a common ingredient in everything from pasta to salad dressing. So when they get more expensive, lots of other food does, too.
Livestock cullings
While these poultry cullings are already too horrific to comprehend, chickens aren’t the only animals who have been killed on a massive scale over the last two years. During the pandemic, many meat production plants shut down, leaving farmers with nowhere to send their animals. In an efficiency-obsessed industry, schedules are so tight that farmers can’t accommodate any delay. When slaughterhouses closed, farmers killed cows, pigs, and other livestock just to get them out of the way.
On top of these mass exterminations, widespread uncertainty led many farmers to scale back their production, leaving them unprepared to meet rising demand once restaurants opened back up and consumers began spending more at the grocery store. Coupled with the labor shortages that have been slowing down meat production, demand for meat has outstripped supply—resulting in higher prices on the shelf.
Drought, climate impacts, and global instability
With so many animals to feed, the meat industry is highly reliant on crops—making it extremely vulnerable to supply shocks due to climate change or global unrest. In fact, Fitch Ratings names meat production as the industry most vulnerable to climate change within the agribusiness sector, noting that the UN PRI Forecast Policy Scenario (FPS) predicts beef production costs will almost double by 2035.
We can see the industry’s vulnerability clearly illustrated by the impacts of drought over the last two years. Following a terrible 2020 drought, the western US was hit even harder by drought in 2021—not only reducing the sizes of cattle herds, but also pushing up the price of cattle feed.
Additionally, the prices of corn and grain surged following the invasion of Ukraine. In the face of these shortages, the true wastefulness of growing crops for animals becomes even more stark. Every 100 calories of grain that are fed to a cow (grain that could instead be turned into bread for humans) result in just three calories of beef. As the Economist points out, “one of the most effective ways for individual consumers to alleviate the world’s grain shortage is to eat more grain—at the expense of meat.”
Allegations of price gouging
Even with all these challenges, meatpacker profits actually increased over the last two years—leading some consumer protection groups to accuse the industry of price gouging, or jacking up prices beyond what they should be. According to a White House brief on the subject, “The data show that these companies have been raising prices while generating record profits during the pandemic.”
Just a few companies—four, to be exact—process the vast majority of the meat sold in the United States. That leaves these companies with plenty of market power and little competition, allowing them to collude on setting prices higher and higher. Tyson Foods, for example, reported 526 million in net income in the third quarter of 2020, and then 753 million in the same quarter of 2021—an increase of $227 million. Meanwhile, consumers are paying more and more to put food on the table.
Tips for saving on groceries
Unfortunately, all of this instability ends up hurting consumers the most—especially low-income households and individuals who are already struggling. For Americans feeling the pain of inflation, incorporating more plant-based staples can be a simple and healthy way to cut down on food spending. While meat and eggs have led the charge on rising costs this year, the prices of plant-based staples like bread, vegetables, and legumes have risen slower than the overall rate of inflation for groceries.
Maybe you’re already vegan, or maybe you’re interested in reducing your meat consumption. Either way, eating more plants is a great way to save animals and save on your grocery bill. Here are some tips for eating plant-based and saving money at the supermarket:
1. Try some easy egg replacements
Rather than pay exorbitant prices for eggs, there are plenty of great alternatives you can try. Instead of egg salad, munch on this protein-packed chickpea salad sandwich—easy, affordable, and lower in cholesterol. For baking, try substituting an egg with a quarter cup of applesauce for added moisture, or whip up a flax egg to achieve the same binding effect in a recipe.
2. Give Meatless Mondays a go
Most of the plant-based protein sources waiting patiently in the pantry, like chickpeas and black beans, are significantly cheaper and healthier than meat—even without the generous government subsidies for the corn and soy fed to farmed animals. (75% of federal subsidies go to just 10% of farms—propping up our highly consolidated and industrialized food system. Not only can plant-based eating be cheaper, but it also encourages crop diversity and fights the inherent waste in subsidizing foods that don’t even get eaten by humans.) If it feels overwhelming to cut out meat altogether, try starting with one day of the week—like Meatless Monday! Replace a hamburger with a yummy and affordable black bean burger, or swap out chicken for flavorful marinated tofu.
3. Plan recipes for the week
When it comes to plant-based eating, planning is your friend. Find a few recipes you’re excited to try, and bring a list with you to the grocery store. Luckily, we’ve got a few free plant-based recipe books to help you start your journey.
Conclusion
As long as we insist on remaining dependent on animal cruelty and environmental destruction for our food, we will be forced to pay a higher and higher price—and not just in dollars and cents.
Plant-based eating provides a better path forward for our economy, our collective health, and our planet. Not only can it be easier on our wallets, but it can also help us build a more compassionate, sustainable, and resilient food system for years to come.
Ready to get started? Check out our tips for eating veg on a budget!
