While consumers pay high beef prices at the grocery store, very little has trickled down to ranchers — in fact, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the gap between the retail price for beef and the price producers receive is the largest it’s ever been. In interviews, eight ranchers in seven states agreed their profits have stagnated or even decreased, while the meatpacking companies — which buy the animals for slaughter, then package the meat to be sold at grocery stores — have benefited.
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Fund for Investigative Journalism, Gary Marx Journalism Fund, Arnold Ventures, Lumpkin Family Foundation, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, Builders Initiative
MEMBER OF
