Chicken prices at U.S. grocery stores have hit record highs and should stay elevated as Tyson Foods and other companies dial back poultry production to boost margins while inflation-weary shoppers buy chicken instead of beef and pork.
Higher chicken prices should improve earnings at top producers Tyson (TSN.N) and Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC.O), but will pinch consumers’ pockets as they try to save money by turning away from higher-end proteins. One index shows chicken producer profit margins at their highest in a year.
U.S. consumption of chicken is expected to exceed 100 pounds per person this year for the first time ever, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.
Beef consumption is forecast to drop to its lowest since 2018, as prices climb due to dwindling cattle supplies. Meanwhile, consumer spending cuts have knocked pork consumption to the lowest since 2015.
Arkansas-based Tyson, which sells all three types of meat, had to deal with a glut of chicken after earning massive profits when meat prices soared during the COVID-19 pandemic.
No one should be buying anything from Tyson. Pure evil company, not only with deliberately squeezing money from the cash-strapped like this, but the way they treat their animals absolutely should be illegal.
Adding to it, the treatment of their employees is horrendous and very low paying.
The kids they were employing thought they were getting paid a fortune though.
And the way they treat the farmers who run their farms.
Id like to inform everyone that the cruel way they treat animals is how every single animal agriculture company treat their animals. 99% of animals in farms on earth are farmed in a way that meets the “factory farmed” description. Those “certified human” stickers on your grocery store meat is a label made by a board composed entirely of the CEOs of those exact companies theyre supposed to be regulating.
Don’t forget that they are snitches too. Tyson dropped a dime
Now seems like a perfect time to squeeze the pennies out of the lower class, according to Tyson.
Also, Tyson meat is all trash anyway. Too bad other companies are participating. Isn’t this close to price fixing or something?
Somebody has to reset the Days Since We Fixed Prices clock at Tyson again.
Lol, that was only several years ago. But they were fined a pittance? Why would they continue to commit the same crimes when it’s wildly profitable?
It’s not a fine, it’s just a cost of doing business.
The only way to make them stop is to hurt their profits, but our corptocracy is too spineless to levy proper fines against businesses.
Or we could start tar and feathering boards of directors. We could even use chicken feathers!
Oligarchy is the word you’re trying for.
Not only are their fines small, but they also implicate others in their schemes that have to pay higher fines, so they also are able to prove the competition they conspire with out of the market
Chicken prices at U.S. grocery stores have hit record highs and should stay elevated as Tyson Foods and other companies dial back poultry production to boost margins while inflation-weary shoppers buy chicken instead of beef and pork.
That’s not competition, that’s cartel behavior. Sounds like it’s time to break Tyson Foods back up into smaller companies.
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until bean manufacturers ‘dial back production’ like the chicken people above. this whole thing is fucked, its happening here in australia too, corps simply do not give a fuck and are hitting the cheaper foods with the biggest price rises
And it’s happened here in Canada as well. They’ve seen how well it works. They are purposefully doing this to raise prices and screw people all over the world.
I’m not even a vegetarian, but most of America is really sleeping on tofu. It’s delicious, versatile and affordable. I love cooking with it.
There are multiple meals I genuinely prefer tofu to the original protein.
It’s hard to get in certain places and people don’t understand the different varieties. If anyone reading this wants to try it, check your local Asian grocer if you’re lucky enough to have one.
IMO Thai food does vegetarian better than anyone.
I think Indian and Korean food can beat Thai
Indian food is next level when done correctly. It’s so good that it replaced a large chunk of British food for the British after they invaded India and realised that the Indians were on to something
Most ignorant comment you’ll regularly see - “The Brits colonised the world for spices then never used them”
Lol most of the curries you’ll try are British varients of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi dishes
I eat plenty of tofu and would still rather have most anything else.
Honestly, that’s probably how you’re preparing it or a personal quirk. Over a billion people eat it regularly, it’s probably in a huge number of peoples favorite meals, it absolutely can be prepared so that most people enjoy it well enough to eat regularly without going nuts
I believe you are wrong. It’s all personal preference and if you didn’t grow up eating it regularly then you’re probably not going to enjoy it as a substitute long term.
I like it and use it in a variety of things. I’m also aware enough to know that I like and prefer other things more. Typically meat but sometimes mushroom, depending on the dish.
Same way I like chicken, beef, pork, and other meats. I have preferences and preferring one over any other doesn’t mean I’m making the others wrong.
I believe you are wrong. It’s all personal preference and if you didn’t grow up eating it regularly then you’re probably not going to enjoy it as a substitute long term.
Na. I grew up eating the standard American diet and have been vegan for nearly 3 years now. I eat a ton of tofu. It took a few tries to get it right but after that, I love the stuff. I’ve come to understand that I like seasoning/taste, not necessarily meat/animal products itself.
Agreed, I’ve tried and tried with tofu, and I’m a good cook. It’s definitely an acquired taste and texture.
It’s like saying “Well the French eat snails so everyone should”. Yeah they eat them absolutely slathered in butter and garlic for a reason
I have preferences and preferring one over any other doesn’t mean I’m making the others wrong.
Absolutely not, it could be a personal quirk. I have literally over a hundred recipes for zucchini, and I’ve won multiple awards for one of my zucchini dishes. Zucchini is always going to be meh at best for me, because it’s a personal preference. Maybe tofu is like that for you, but it’s not true for everyone.
I tried tofu for the first time as a teenager and didn’t eat it regularly until my 20s. It’s now in several of my favorite things to eat. However, it can be finicky, and I don’t always like how others prepare it. I’m obviously also not representative of every person, but it’s not an impossible thing to learn to like or even rare for adult vegetarians/vegans to develop a serious taste for.
Two billion people eat insects and mealworms. Doesn’t mean I’m about to start.
That’s fine, but you recognize that insects aren’t an inherently “bad” food source, right? They’re not even fundamentally different from shellfish.
I don’t want to eat insects either, but I also don’t want to eat chicken wings (probably for the same reason most people don’t want to eat insects, I’m squeamish). I don’t believe that chicken wings are objectively a bad food, though. They’re obviously not, because so many people love them.
Yeah, it’s all food. But there’s enough things out there that I already like, that I don’t need to delve into a world of weird shit for sustenance.
Also, I like chicken but the figure up there in the article of 100lb a year seems astronomical to me. I doubt I even eat a third of that.
For the number of meals in a year, there’s 1095 (365 * 3), not including forth meals, snacks, etc. For 100 pounds, let’s convert it to ounces, so 1600 oz.
Assuming 8 oz (half pound) for a single meal meal. Normal weight of a single chicken breast is 6 ounces, but there are some factors I’m not sure about (is bone weight included, raw or cooked weight, etc), so rounding up to 8 to cover those.
That works out to 200 meals with 8 oz chicken to reach the 100 pounds goal. This means not even a quarter of the usual 1095 meals in a year, but rather only around 18% is chicken based. I was a bit skeptical as well, but this seems easier to reach than I thought.
This in some ways justifies all those pounds of meat from hunting I accrued in playing Oregon Trail lol.
The most expensive ingredient in my falafel burgers is the cardamom. Small price to pay considering how dirt cheap all the other ingredients are and that they’re mad delicious 😋😋😋
Everytime I’ve tried Falafel I’ve found it to be more or less like a ball of dry oatmeal with about the same flavour. Am I just being real unlucky?
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Yes, most definitely. Dry and tasteless are not words I associate with falafel, it sounds like something went horribly wrong there
The base taste is pretty mild, like a baked potato, but then you add spices and eat it along with other things
It’s way better if you feed all the ingredients through a meat grinder (the irony is not lost on me), rather than a food processor. Think corn meal texture vs flour texture.
Also, deep fry it. Baking it just isn’t nearly as good.
Dry falafel is the worst. Yes, it can be better, but also you need to have a yogurt sauce, some cucumbers, tomatoes, and tabbouleh. You don’t eat a hamburger patty plain, right?
Ah that sounds like the key to what I’ve been missing. I didn’t realize it was meant to be mixed with anything else. Thanks I’ll have to try it again.
Uh. Am I not supposed to eat a hamburger patty plain? Lol. It’s just a flattened meatball after all…
You can, but if you’re doing that, you should be mixing stuff into the meat. Personally I like to make them plain so that I can make a bunch, freeze them, and put different toppings on.
So not with my hands like a neanderthal? Hmm…
You’ve had falafel that tasted as good as oatmeal?
You lucky bastard.
Depends. You do a lot better price-wise with dry beans.
If you consider drained weight, canned beans are usually about $1 for a 15oz can in my area, which yields about half a pound of drained beans. So, $2/lb
Chicken is anywhere from $1 to $8/lb but I’ve been averaging about $2/lb. It’s our main protein source and I watch for sales and stock up.
Fresh plants that we’ve bought from all of our local stores do not keep, even in the fridge. Anything fresh we have found needs to be eaten within 2-3 days before it starts turning. I’m not about to go to multiple stores 2-3 times a week to get what I need, only to waste money if I don’t have the time or energy to make a fresh meal every day of the week.
Anything plant based that’s pre-prepared and/or frozen tends to be anywhere from $6-12 per “meal”. I’m over 6’2" and 215lbs and the “meals” are more like half a meal for me.
Unless you are ONLY eating beans or rice. Yes, from what I’ve seen, eating plant based diets is very expensive.
I am interested in the one comment mentioning replacing chicken with tofu though. Some of the pre-made tofu meals I’ve had were pretty good. I’ve never cooked with it though. My family hasn’t really eaten beef or pork in years since all of the studies came out linking red meat to cancer. I also have a liver condition that docs recommend avoiding red meat entirely as well.
I’m not about to go to multiple stores 2-3 times a week to get what I need
That’s called “shopping”. It’s very common.
How many times a week do you go grocery shopping and how many different stores do you go to? Personally, I don’t know anyone who goes grocery shopping more than once a week, or MAYBE twice if their regular grocery store doesn’t have what they need.
Europe would shock you to your core. There are people who go to multiple stores every day.
I often stop at the grocery store on my way home from work.
I’d love to be able to walk to both, but we’re not quite there yet.
Since you mentioned being interested in using tofu, my favorite (by far) vegan youtuber Nisha just published a video all about tofu.
I was shocked and completely changed my diet recently when I noticed that the price per pound for chicken was greater than the price per pound for tofu. Now I’m experimenting with making my own tempeh at home.
Look into textured vegetable protein, too. It doesn’t have much taste of its own, but gives a ground-beef-like texture when you add it to pasta sauce. Wicked cheap, when you take into account that it’s dehydrated.
Edit: good room temperature shelf life, too.
I’m doing more meatless meals due to this and dietary requirements.
Their chicken is nasty IMO. I just got Purdue at Kroger and hour ago and it was 2.99 a pound for boneless/skinless. It’s my preferred brand. Butchered well, way more tender.
Less chickens being slaughtered is fine by me. Maybe beef and pork producers also wanna ‘boost margins’
Line…line go up?
Tyson chicken is garbage
Laughs in vegetarian who grew up around chicken plants
I mean this sucks but you could also just not eat any chicken.
Yeah just let them eat cake
Comments like this make me realize how awful the average persons diet is when they dont even know what beans and rice are lmao. Literally the cheapest foods are vegan. I eat beans, rice, pasta. Pb&Js. Apples ,bananas, sauteed veggies. If you have even a basic grasp of cooking this is the cheapest way to eat and still delicious
Yeah i know what the expression is. My point was the absolute ignorance to think that the only cheap food is meat, and that vegans eat super expensive bougie fake meat all day. Instead of cheap foods that are diet staples around the entire planet
I think you may have missed the part where people are eating chicken because the prices of beef and pork are through the roof.
What if there was some crazy option that didnt involve any of the those?
Cannibalism is illegal, and risky, trust me.
There’s always roadkill
Imagine if that crazy option would also be a lot less accessible to poor people who live in food deserts. But, as usual, they don’t matter.
I went vegan in a food desert. Beans, rice, greens, lentils, potatoes, etc. are available in the same areas where you can buy the carcasses of sentient beings and are generally cheaper than the cruelest option.
I think i fit that bill pretty well in rural mississippi
well, we shouldn’t be eating them either
Someone is upset by the concept of us not eating animals
Idunno, I’ve managed to eat none of the three for like six years now and I’m still kicking
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$1.79/lb boneless skinless
a few weeks ago hereright now.
Chicken is fucking gross in the U.S. I heard in parts of Europe you all don’t allow any salmonella in your chicken at all, like zero.
Meanwhile over here… let me say, 20 years in kitchens I have witnessed so much disgusting cross contamination. If you eat out and get a case of the ‘stomach flu’, that’s probably food poisoning. The flu is a respiratory infection.
Chicken holocaust enablers. I don’t want to come across as a crazy vegan (I’m not a vegan) but chickens are as intelligent as any other pet, if not more. My chickens recognize words and individual people, and are always figuring out sneaky ways to escape their enclosure. If we all raised our own chickens, there would be a lot less collective suffering on this planet. You only need to refill their feeder once a week, and you can compost their droppings to make pure fertilizer.
Edit: B…but my tendies!!! All I’m asking is for people to consider eating chicken less often and to consider the suffering they go through as a species. They evolved to live in the jungle, not a cage barely as big as them.
I raise my own chickens and love them very much. I’d also eat one if they got out of line, and I ate the males as soon as they were big enough (only hens allowed here locally). Its both an amazing food resource and source of joy seeing them every morning and giving them treats as they wander my yard. They are very happy.
I also buy chicken from the store still because I usually raise for eggs only. Point is, I am around chickens every day by choice and don’t see it the same way as you.
