Big Take Podcast

Where’s the Beef? How a Fragile Cattle Market Is Driving Up Costs

On today’s Big Take podcast: Inflation is cooling down, but the surging price of beef at the grocery store tells a different story.

The US cattle herd has shrunk in recent years to the smallest since the early 1950s.Photographer: NIck Oxford

Never miss an episode. Follow The Big Take daily podcast today.

Inflation in the US has cooled from pandemic peaks, but there’s a grocery product telling a different story: beef. The price of uncooked ground beef soared by the most since June 2020 in government data released Friday. The broad beef and veal category is up 15% over the past year as of January.