USDA: Meat, Egg Prices Set To Increase

MATTHEW ENIS

WASHINGTON — Retail prices of meat, eggs and poultry will continue to rise at a rate exceeding general inflation through at least 2010 as producers grapple with escalating animal feed costs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service noted in a recent report.

Driven by a combination of government mandates and rising oil prices, ethanol production is expected to exceed 10 billion gallons by 2009, up from 5 billion gallons last year. Since most U.S. ethanol production is corn-based, the report pro-jects that ethanol production will consume 30% of the total U.S. corn crop by 2009, up from 14% in 2006.

Echoing concerns voiced throughout 2007 by industry groups and private-sector analysts, the report — “U.S. Ethanol Expansion Driving Changes Throughout the Agricultural Sector” — notes that “higher corn prices reduce the profitability of meat production because of corn's importance to the livestock sector as an animal feed. In response, red meat production is projected to decline in the United States and growth in poultry output is likely to slow.”

The rising cost of corn “will also most likely mean higher food prices for consumers. Retail price increases for red meats, poultry and eggs are projected to exceed the general inflation rate in 2008-10, as the livestock sector adjusts to higher feed costs,” the report concludes.

Animal protein producers do have other options in their choice of feed — notably soybeans. However, the USDA has noted that as corn becomes more profitable to grow, many large farms are simply planting corn on acreage that was once devoted to soybeans. In fact, soybean production has declined in almost direct proportion to new corn plantings this year, and the USDA projects that this trend will continue through 2016.

Similarly, distiller's grain, a byproduct of ethanol production, has gained new prominence as an inexpensive feed for cattle, but it can only be used as a small portion of a cow's diet, while non-ruminants, such as hogs and poultry, have difficulty utilizing distiller's grain, even as a dietary filler.

Increased demand for both crops is expected to result in lower carryover stocks, making the market “more vulnerable to shocks, such as production shortfalls due to weather, pests or other factors. … Thus, overall price variability and market volatility in the agricultural sector are likely to increase,” according to the report.

This grim assessment, of course, assumes that existing farm and energy legislation, as well as existing federal incentives for ethanol production, will remain in place. And while ethanol still holds promise as a source of renewable energy that could ultimately wean the U.S. from dependence on foreign sources of oil, groups ranging from the Grocery Manufacturers Association to the Sierra Club have argued that current production methods are extremely inefficient, and that corn is far from an ideal crop for making fuel.

For example, in response to President Bush's proposal to cut gasoline consumption by 20% over the next decade, Cal Dooley, GMA's president and chief executive officer, said earlier this year that “a 35-billion-gallon ethanol mandate will require a substantial increase in the use of fossil fuels for corn and ethanol processing and transportation, as well as an additional 15 million acres devoted to corn crops, which will encroach on agriculturally marginal and environmentally sensitive land.”