Agricultural News
At $4.61 per person- the 2008 Thanksgiving Meal is Still a Bargain
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 6:09:37 CST
Food Prices have fallen little if any over the last few months, despite the sharp drop in farmgate prices for livestock and grains- and Jim Sartwell of the American Farm Bureau says that Farm Bureau spoke out against the Food Processors and others who screamed about the high price of food- and claiming that ethanol was the cause of those high food costs. Sartwell, a Livestock Economist for AFBF, says it was nice to be right back last spring when they told the public commodity prices were not the big driver of higher food costs.
Sartwell says that with sharply lower feed grain prices, he is hopeful that livestock feeders in all three major species- beef, pork and poultry, will be able to get into the black and stay there for a while- to make up for a very tough year that has been awash in red ink.
We also talked with Sartwell about the Farm Bureau's annual Thanksgiving dinner cost estimate for 2008. For a meal that will feed ten adults, AFBF estimates that the cost of buying all the fixings at the supermarket across the US is an average of $44.61. He says all items in the survey was up a little compared to one year ago except for a gallon of milk, which was cheaper than a year ago. Sartwell points out the 2008 meal, if you take out inflation, is actually cheaper than 20 years ago. The American consumer continues to have safe and affordable food being produced by the American farmer and rancher.
For our complete conversation with Jim Sartwell highlighting some of the things he told Oklahoma Farm Bureau members when he spoke to the 67th annual meeting of the OFB, click on the listen bar below.
And a reminder- coverage of beef industry events at meetings here in 2008 is a service in part of Hudson Livestock Supplements!
Ron Hays with Jim Sartwell of the American Farm Bureau on Livestock price outlook- as well as a look at food prices and the cost of a Turkey Day meal
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