Some cows, posing for a family portrait.
Dr. Derrell Peel, a professor of agribusiness at Oklahoma State University, posted some thoughts about beef last week, in an op-ed titled, “Your Burger Is Going to Get Only More Expensive.”
I don’t eat burgers, so I’m not the type of person whose burgers Dr. Peel thinks will get more expensive. Beef has been beyond the reach of my wallet for a few years now.
But I discovered a while back that beef has about 25 grams of protein per 100 grams… and peanut butter has about 24 grams of protein per 100 grams. Almost the same protein value, ounce for ounce. I just spread the peanut butter a little thicker and it beats out the burger.
Many people prefer burgers to peanut butter, but I am not among them. I allow my wallet to influence my preferences.
However, I don’t want to address this humor column only to fellow peanut butter fans. I assume burger eaters also enjoy sarcastic humor, maybe more than most people. So today’s column will respond to some of the more pertinent information I gleaned from Dr. Peel’s article.
Starting with the very last line in Dr. Peel’s op-ed.
Beef; it’s the new oil.
Based on the interesting facts our professor shared, this sentence could be interpreted in a couple of ways.
Oil, for example, has become more expensive lately. And so has beef. But so has almost everything else. Even peanut butter.
Beef and oil are similar, however, in the sense that they’ve become way more expensive.
Ten years ago, a gallon of gas (nationally) was priced at $2.30. When I drove through town yesterday, I saw the price advertised at $4.79. Ouch.
Ten years ago, a pound of ground beef was running $3.77. It’s now $6.89. Double ouch.
Peanut butter was, ten years ago, priced at about $2.98 a pound. When I bought some organic peanut butter from Natural Grocers yesterday, it was priced at $3.98 a pound. I call that a bargain, in terms of protein.
I buy organic peanut butter, not because it tastes better, but because it makes me feel righteous. Natural Grocers actually grinds their peanut butter at the store. So I can feel even more righteous.
People who are still eating burgers must think that money grows on trees. Which it doesn’t.
From Dr. Peel’s article:
In most years you don’t think a lot about beef prices, and especially not about how the beef in the grocery case even gets there. Today’s record prices, though — the national average for sirloin is $14.11 per pound — are attracting a lot of attention from consumers, and politicians. So much so that President Trump recently relaxed tariffs on 300,000 metric tons (about 661 million pounds) of imported beef to bring down costs.
But high beef prices didn’t just happen overnight. They’re not going away anytime soon, either. Because getting a steak or a burger to your plate is a long, complicated process…
If you read the full article, you get a sense of just how complicated the process really is, and why beef is going to stay expensive for at least several years.
The government is going blame various people for those higher prices. The Democrats are going to blame the Republicans and the Republicans are going to blame the Democrats. But actually, neither party is going to be able to do a goddamn thing to fix the situation. Government are good at certain things — collecting taxes and starting wars and so on — but they are almost powerless when it comes to fixing high beef prices.
Or high gas prices, apparently.
Another reason why beef… it’s the new oil.
And why peanut butter is the new beef.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.