Meat Prices Rise 30% by 2013.

Food costs are going up across the board but it turns out the item that will hit consumers hardest will be meat.

Market experts are predicting that meat prices will skyrocket 30% in the next few years. This means that an average pound of ground beef will go from about $3.87 to over $5 per pound. This is largest increase that any of the food sectors will face.

Food prices fluctuate all the time but not like this and not under these sensitive global conditions. The usual reaction to a spike in commodity price is to increase production. Unfortunately, the meat industry is nearly maxed out on resource use and under the threat of global warming, increased meat production could send the planet into a downward spiral. 

Committees are summits are being convened to figure out how to solve this mess when the simplest solutions are right under our noses. Stop eating meat. Break the news to people that they are going to have to eat more sustainably because the alternatives are $100 burgers or total global destruction.

The grain used to produce meat could feed 11 billion people. Let’s help the UN do the math: less meat production + the same level of grain production + effective distribution of food = enough to go around.