The year 2020 has been popularly characterized as the year of meat alternatives. Media coverage of these new alternative products has been persistent, and mostly positive. COVID has reportedly made consumers more health conscious, and there is increased understanding about damage to the environment caused by livestock production. Yet meat production and exports appear to be doing just fine. Going into the holiday months of November and December, U.S. beef packers have ramped up production to record levels (see graph below). It might all be for not, but monthly data on beef in cold storage has tracked lower since this past summer relative to the recent past.
Meat alternatives likely have less appeal to populations that are only rec...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
