Speaking Of Meats, Have Chickens Joined A Union?

[launderess]

Cannot believe how much chicken has gone up the past year or so. A pack of five or six thighs (many prepacks cut down from six to five over a year ago, some have since gone back to six), now costs about $8 to $9 dollars around here. Whole chickens start at nearly eleven for a squab sized bird. If you want a decent roaster be prepared to pay.

Chicken used to be very affordable. May have to go back to eating red meat more often! *LOL*

 

[maytagbear]

Get used to it!

The drought that is affecting most of the country is not sparing the agricultural midlands. Crops are either dying in the fields, or are being irrigated at breathtakingly high rates--unless a farmer is lucky enough to have his/her own aquifer.

Food prices worldwide are going to start creeping up in the fall, and be worse in the winter. Beef, chicken, pork, lamb are all going to be more expensive, due to the increase in price of fodder.

Freeze, can, dehydrate, and in general, put some food by. Or win a a lottery not written by Mrs. Stanley E. Hyman. (< That's her married name.)

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[westie2]

As Maytagbear said the drought and also corn is being used for Ethanol More and more corn is going toward the making of this nasty stuff.  Corn is the main ingredient not onlyh for poultry feed but also all livestock beef and pork included.  Plus the big sell off last year of all beef due to the drought last year.  Lots of ranchers did sell off due to no green grass and round bales of hay went up to $50.00 to $100.00 a bale and then the transportation of it.  When beef is sold off it can take 4 years before one can replenish with new herds.  Pork takes 2 years.    Pork take 33 weeks from birth to being fed out and ready to be butchered.

 

 

 

 

 

[countryguy]

The price of chicken started going up here months ago, long before the drought started.  A couple of boneless, skinless breasts used to be about $5, now they are $8-$10.

 

Gary

 

[westie2]

Feed has gone up because of the drought last year also breeder flocks have been sent to slugher faster and fewer eggs for fewer brolers.  At oe plant we have shut down an entire shift of first processing which cuts out for that pkant about 200,000 Five  pound birds a day dressed.

 

[frigilux]

Nice try with your esoteric postulations guys, but Launderess was on the right track: Chickens HAVE formed a union! I went, undercover of course, to one of the meetings, and let me tell you it was a harrowing experience; everyone hunting and pecking and clucking--not to mention crapping all over the place. Absolute bedlam! My chicken-to-English skills aren't what they used to be, but from what I gathered they seem to be planning the overthrow of a substantial part of the upper midwest.

 

[lordkenmore]

I am on a mostly vegetarian diet. A major reason for this is meat prices. Grocery prices are bad in general, and something had to give. Now on the rare occasions I look at meat (often inspired by a recipe here!), I take one look, and cringe. Even the "clearance" section (where I did most of my buying a couple of years ago) has gotten to the point of making me cringe.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

When I was a kid in the 1960s we ate a lot of chicken because it was cheap.  Now when we're broke we're forced to make a roast beef.  No complaints here.

 

Ken D.

 

[lordkenmore]

I know this sounds like (multiple choice):

A. Paranoid
B. Conspiracy Theory Minded
C. Cynical
D. All of the above

But there are moments when I wonder if part of grocery prices going up faster than a themometer tossed into a vat of boiling oil isn't due to some ploy to get control of the peasants.

In more rational moments, I think higher prices are probably a huge gift in an election year. It allows one to campaign using fear as huge weapon.

 

[lordkenmore]

One thing I'm wondering: has anyone noticed what's happened with organic meat prices? Or small scale "locally raised" meat prices? I'm wondering if the gap hasn't closed between "conventional" and "organic" prices. At least a bit. I think I've noticed that with produce--at my usual store, organic produce used to be dramatically more expensive. Now, it's often only a little bit more expensive--and sometimes (with the right sale) the same price, or even cheaper!

 

[twintubdexter]

The Palm Springs area is certainly is no "Bargain City&#

...but those prices for chicken are sky high! Foster Farms is the big name for poultry here in California and that's what I usually buy. A fresh whole fryer runs about 79 cents a pound on sale so you can get a nice big chicken for about $3.50. I bake thighs for my dogs, keep them in the fridge and mix them in their dry food. Fresh FF thighs are on sale all the time for 89 cents a pound so they actually cost less than adding canned dog food.

 

[launderess]

Just Checked A Packet Of Chicken Tighs In The Freezer

Price is $2.99/lb which comes to about $8.00 for a 2.35lbs packet.

 

[twintubdexter]

I'm sure you could go to some of the more "rich people's markets" here in the Desert like Bristol Farms or Jensen's and pay $2.99 a pound for chicken thighs. I hope I didn't give anyone the idea that I think chicken thighs are dog food. I love legs and thighs and fortunately they are inline with my budget.

 

[launderess]

These are plain old chikcen thighs, nothing fancy but not the "frou-frou" organic/free range sort of things. Those prices are strictly out of my budget.

Probably could get chicken cheaper if one went for Perdue, but cannot abide that brand. Tried it once years ago and so much water came out during cooking that one had to empty the broiler pan halfway through. Same with their roasters.

 

[wayupnorth]

I have several boneless skinless chicken breasts in my freezer I got from my local Save a Lot store and they all say $2.39/lb. One breast is 2 meals for me. And my Save a Lot has convenient individual packages, as I cant be bothered with huge family packs and have to wrap/freeze individually. I buy most all my meat and produce there as it is always fresh and priced right.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Still affordable here....

Pricing by the package, unless they're standardized weight, isn't a fair comparison. At the same price per pound, I've seen packages of a certain cut run from +/- $8 to $14 or so though they have the same number of parts in them. One pack may be 2# where the one next to it, on the same sized tray, may be 3#. They're priced by pound, not package.

We have several different markets here (Price Chopper, Stop and Shop, Hanaford, Market Basket) and they all have chicken on sale for various prices. As a general rule, I can get a pack of legs and thighs or just thighs for between $0.99 and $1.19 a pound. A pack of 10 thighs is about $6-8 depending on the size of them. I think the non-sale price is something like $1.99 per pound. I buy them when they're half that and freeze them if necessary.

Just bought bone-in center cut pork chops (3/4" thick- yum!) for $1.99 a pound. We ate two Monday night and have 4 more in the freezer for 2 more meals!

And, boneless, skinless breasts are still available for $1.99/lb on sale (available on sale at at least one or two markets at any one time).

It's all about context. Per-pound comparisons don't lie. "Regular" prices on many cuts of meat have gone up, but sale prices seem to be holding steady!

Chuck

 

[sudsmaster]

It's always been more economical to buy a whole fryer. You get the giblets too, which I generally feed to the pets (the pond turtle loves them). Costco sells them for $1.09/lb, sometimes with specials (whole fryers, not pond turtles).

And flash frozen parts like thighs or tenders still seem to be rather reasonable. But then fish used to be reasonably priced, too. It's REALLY gone through the roof.

 

[arbilab]

Speaking of food unions, maple trees. I could eat for a week for what a bottle of maple syrup costs. 'Course it lasts a month or 2, I don't drink it out of the bottle like I used to.

I reckon chickens are expensive because all the corn they used to eat the goobermint now mandates we feed it to cars.

 

[launderess]

Maple Syrup

When one got on the "waffle kick" a few weeks back went to pick up some pure maple syrup and was gobmsacked! Couldn't believe how much the stuff costs. I mean you would have thought it was smuggled in from Columbia.

Still as one refuses to touch the "Log Cabin" stuff, put it into the trolley and was on my way. Asked the supermarket manager about it and he said it is something to with a disease that hit many of the maple trees.

So now one has pure maple syrup on the list of things to stock when on sale. Local organic shop had it on recently and picked up some then.