“If you’re not failing, you’re not getting better” – inspiring words from an entrepreneur who spent the majority of his college years literally falling down and getting back up. Aaron Grimes, a self-proclaimed hyperactive only child, competed in extreme watersports before settling into the business world.
In March of 1993, Sharpsburg resident Eddie Grimes received a heart transplant after going into congestive heart failure; 29 years later, that same heart is keeping him strong, and has served as a true gift of new life.
While 2020 was a disaster on many fronts, one area that didn’t fall into the disaster category was domestic meat and poultry demand. Disruption? Absolutely. But, perhaps surprisingly, the disaster moniker doesn’t apply to this aspect of our business.
That doesn’t’ mean that 2020 wasn’t a wild ride. As can be seen from both Figure 1 and 2, real per capita expenditures for the three largest species and for pork followed a roller coaster path that would make even Cedar Point, Ohio (look it up – it’s heaven if you are a roller coaster fan!) proud.
Real per capita expenditures (RPCE) is a measure of the position of a demand function in the traditional Price-Quantity space used in supply and demand diagrams. Higher RPCE means the demand function moves up and to the right (ie. away form the origin) while lower RPCE would indicate a downward and leftward move of the demand function. RPCE is a very close cousin to the demand indexes first used by Professor Glenn Grim