June 25, 2014 9:56AM # Are Beef Prices at An All-Time High? By [Marian L. Tupy](https://www.cato.org/people/marian-l-tupy) --- SHARE The press is reporting record prices for beef. According to a June 18 story in the *[New York Post](http://nypost.com/2014/06/18/meat-poultry-and-fish-prices-spike-to-all-time-high/)*, “It’s a barbecue-season bummer! Meat, poultry and fish prices have spiked an average of 8 percent since last year — soaring to an all-time high, national data show. The cost of ground beef has gone up 11 percent… ‘Everything is going through the roof,’ said Jim Hopkins, 52, a supervisor at Associated Supermarket in the West Village, who has worked in the grocery business for 30 years. ‘I’ve never seen increases like this — where they jump as much as this.’” ![Media Name: beef_per_kg.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/beef_per_kg.jpg?itok=yhQwPXYv) Yet the World Bank data shows remarkable stability in the inflation-adjusted price of ground beef over the last half century. That is all the more remarkable considering that: 1. There were 3 billion people in the world in 1960. Today there are 7 billion of us. 2. In 1960, the average income per person was $3,000 (in inflation adjusted 2000 dollars). Today it is $7,500. 3. More people earning more money = higher demand for meat, especially beef. 4. Yet, beef prices are, roughly where they were in 1960. So, cheer up and don’t let those pessimists spoil your barbecue-season. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).