David Anderson - Professor & Economist, Texas A&M Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six twenty four is their time. Fast food is still fast,
but it's no longer cheap. Six twenty four our time.
David Anderson joins US professor and economist at Texas A
and M. And And I think maybe it's just our
love of hamburgers to begin with. That is part of
the reason why the price has been driven up. But
I cannot but think, you know, that drop we had
a couple of years ago and having to thin the
herd so to speak here in Texas, that didn't help much,

(00:21):
did it.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
No, that's a big part of it, quite honestly. I
mean it all starts with drought and rainfall and the
grass growing, which allows us to have more cattle, which
boosts our supplies and brings those prices down. And so
a big part of it is just fewer cattle in
the US.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, and then it gets exacerbated by the economics of
what's happened in this country in terms of energy, the
attacks on energy. You know, it all falls back on
the poorer rancher, but really they have to pay for
their equipment, they have to pay for their feed, they
have to pay for transportation. I mean, it really rolls
around to more than just the well.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
It sure does. You know, we went through a number
of years of very low calf prices relative to those
costs you talk about. So with higher costs and low
prices for what they're selling, that cuts deeper into our
herds and so again that adds to a little less
beef production, certainly fewer cattle, all.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Right, So the only answer, I mean, if we're going
to look at this from an economic standpoint, the only
answer is a greater supply. Is there any change in
the supply coming anytime soon?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
David, Well, I think we're really looking at tighter supplies
going forward over the next couple of years. I think
next year we're going to have fewer cows than this year.
But again that's that's part of this. Where we are
in terms of prices, a cattle cycle. It is a
cyclical industry. But we've got we've had some record high

(01:49):
calf prices, which I think generates some interest in an
ability to start rebuilding our herds and getting some growering
beef supplies. But that's the ways down the road.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
What's happening on the industrial level, the meat processors. The
middleman is always really easy to blame the middleman but
how much of that is manipulated or is it? Is
it foreign interest? I know that the Chinese have been
buying a lot of the pork plants in the processing.
Who's in control of a lot of this middle stuff
that the farmers really can't do anything about.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, I think the first part is when we see
higher costs in the overall economy. We have these same
costs in getting our food from where it's produced to
our grocery store and restaurant shelves and tables and so
you know all those you know, whether it's electricity, fuel,
labor costs, all of those costs that we see everywhere,

(02:43):
that's part of getting that food to us. And so
that gets us to some of these higher prices as well.
And certainly from a demand standpoint, a consumer demand boy,
people like beef, and we've been continuing to buy.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, we have, and as as we're willing to the price,
I guess there's no real incentive to bring it down.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Is yet afford the steak? You always go for the burger.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's it. That's it all right, David, thanks for joining us.
Appreciate it. Professor and economists at Texas A and M.
That's David Anderson,