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Bloomberg | Apr 30, 2021
By Isis Almeida, Michael Hirtzer and Kim Chipman
Feeding the world’s chickens, pigs and cows has gotten so expensive it’s upending global trade flows.
As grain prices surge, American chicken giant Perdue Farms Inc. took the rare step of buying soybeans, an American staple, from rival Brazil. BRF SA, Brazil’s top poultry producer, turned to neighboring Argentina for corn, while feed makers in China and the U.S. are buying wheat more commonly used for bread.
These tactics and others by the world’s top food companies highlight how tight the global market has become. A gauge of grain prices is at an eight-year high, boosting the cost of feeding animals and signaling higher meat prices could be coming for consumers. Still, keeping up with rising meat demand as the world recovers from the pandemic has industry executives saying the rally is far from over.
Livestock feed demand is upending global trade flows
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Livestock feed demand is upending global trade flows
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Climate Change
Once we consider these themes, the next question I ask everyone reading this is how can we better steer the narrative toward positive aspects of cattle ranching, land management, climate, beef production and nutrition?
There is clearly an agenda here that is building, and we can either become victims of whatever that may look like or we can take an active role in countering negative attacks and doing our own public relations efforts. And our approach should not from a defensive standpoint but from a proactive offense! We have an incredible story to tell! Are we ready to tell it?