Economics
John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 5 years ago
Topics: Dairy, Agriculture US, Economics,

Matthew Chapman "On America’s dairy farms, milk and other food products are going to waste in massive quantities. Farmers are dumping food — even as millions of American households are food-insecure, and record numbers of cars are swarming food banks nationwide. Why is this? On Thursday, WIRED broke down the key reasons why farmers can’t afford to feed the poor in general, and in the coronavirus pandemic specifically. Report Advertisement “Some products don’t sell well outside of a restaurant,” wrote Aarian Marshall. “Tomatoes make their way into ketchup, soup, and pizza sauce eaten outside the home. Chicken wing prices have dipped, as the marquee product of March Madness missed its star turn. Meanwhile, prices of beef round and chuck, the more affordable parts used in ground beef and roasts, have jumped almost 40 percent since March. Prices for loin and ‘short plate,’ often used in short ribs, skirt steak, and hanger steak, have declined. ‘It’s an indication of what things mostly go to food service, but also what people want and what people can afford,’ says Jayson Lusk, an economist who heads Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics.”

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