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Comment by lysace | Hacker News Reader

The cost increases are real: beef, wheat, labor. Some of it is from inflation during the covid period, some it is from the Russia-Ukraine invasion causing havoc in fuel and grain supplies globally.

There is currently a beef shortage in Europe (of sorts). The reason is that buying cow feed has gotten too expensive/unpredictable.

I think people generally underestimate the global impact of shutting down production in Europe's bread basket, Ukraine. There is a reason Russia wants this land. It's, as usual, a war for natural resources.

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We should consume a lot less beef. Wages haven't caught up with inflation in a long while, I'd hope McDonalds paying more would trigger a nationwide increase in wages (I know, too optimistic).

I'm not sure that's true about wage growth, especially at the low end:

https://www.epi.org/publication/swa-wages-2023/

> In stark contrast to prior decades, low-wage workers experienced dramatically fast real [inflation-adjusted] wage growth between 2019 and 2023

Your source lists wage growth during that period as 13.2%

Meanwhile inflation over that period is significantly higher at 19.18%.

So, no, low end wage growth has not kept up with inflation.

That says "real wage growth" of 13.2%. IOW 13.2% on top of the 19.18% for nominal wage growth of >33%.

13.2% real wage growth, not nominal wage growth. Real wage growth is what you get after inflation is subtracted out of nominal wage growth. 0% real wage growth would be keeping up with inflation.

1 decade of decent growth doesn't exactly negate multiple decades of negative growth though either.

Agreed. Sheep are a much more sustainable ruminant and we should all shift that way. I always heard it was spoiled cans of mutton fed to GIs that killed Americas taste for sheep. More importantly, we should stop eating food shipped in from far away. Not as easy as it sounds.

I bought some canned corned mutton (from Australia, I think) recently on a whim when I was at a caribbean foods store, and it was incredibly delicious. Not much in the way of gamy flavor (which I don't hate), and more tasty than corned beef. I think this is the recipe I used: https://www.alicaspepperpot.com/guyanese-style-corned-mutton...

That stuff wasn't cheap but I'm gonna make two cans worth next time, since my guests absolutely devoured it.

I live in Oregon where I know we have tons of sheep (you can see them when you're driving on I-5); would be great to get stuff like this with local sheep!

Shipping is really a tiny proportion of the environmental cost of food, especially meat.

Meat-based proteine is important in so many different ways.

Yes, it is possible avoid meat and still have a child develop well. It was also possible to install Linux on your PC in 1991/1992. Most people couldn't, but the really smart (or special) ones could.

I meant beef specifically, not meat in general. Our ancestors didn't eat bovine meat every single day like we do now. Plus cows take up lots of grazing ground, and I'm not happy about how they're treated worse over time because we keep eating more of them, and that requires more and more cruel ways of supplying that beef.

Chicken and sheep seem to be more sustainable. But either way, I think it is good for our health to rotate the types of meat we eat and lower the portions a bit? But it's easier said than done for sure.

Ok. Just noting: Realistically, your concerns are not going to change the eating desires of actual humans in the real world.

So the plan is a beef tax, then?

Here's a reality check from Sweden:

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/svenskarna-dissar-kottska... (the public service broadcaster)

https://www-svt-se.translate.goog/nyheter/inrikes/svenskarna...

I think just raising awareness is enough. Trends come and go. People are drinking a lot less milk these days than in the 80's or prior for example. But on the flip side, ozempic and similar weight loss drugs are probably promoting over-consumption now.

Beef and wheat are expensive because there is a small handful of companies who produce these for the United States, and they all sit around the same table announcing how much they're going to increase their prices every quarter. It's not collusion, you see, just a fun little coincidence. Because curiously, these particular prices have gone up way faster than inflation, despite having leveled off a year or so ago. Of course, maybe it's the arbitrary taxes the unitary executive has been adding to imports. Oh well. Becoming great again has sacrifices, I suppose, like Big Macs.

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