Price-conscious Americans might want to pick up extra strawberries and go heavy on the margaritas for the Fourth of July. That would dull the pain of stocking up for the rest of their cookout and even induce nostalgia for the relatively modest inflation in the first year of the Biden administration.
The American Farm Bureau Federation said Monday that beef, chicken and pork prices are almost one-third higher this year than they were on Independence Day 2021. The soaring meat prices are making the Farm Bureau’s Independence Day cookout cost 17 percent more than a year ago: $69.68 to feed 10 people, up $10 and rising faster than the consumer price index.
Roger Cryan, the group’s chief economist, said meat probably tipped the price scale. Two pounds of beef cost 36 percent more than in 2021, two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts are up 33 percent and three pounds of center cut pork chops are up 31 percent.
