The year 2020 has been popularly characterized as the year of meat alternatives. Media coverage of these new alternative products has been persistent, and mostly positive. COVID has reportedly made consumers more health conscious, and there is increased understanding about damage to the environment caused by livestock production. Yet meat production and exports appear to be doing just fine. Going into the holiday months of November and December, U.S. beef packers have ramped up production to record levels (see graph below). It might all be for not, but monthly data on beef in cold storage has tracked lower since this past summer relative to the recent past.
Meat alternatives likely have less appeal to populations that are only rec...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices extended their rally today, supported by several developments, including escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and growing concerns about supply disruptions. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to remove 50 perc...
Key Takeaways: The agricultural trade surplus has become a sizable deficit: the balance swung from a $40.1 billion surplus in 2011 to a $40.7 billion deficit in 2025. Imports kept growing while exports lost momentum: between 2020 and 2025, agricultural imports increased 45 percent, compa...
USDA released its October Cattle on Feed report Friday, showing 11.4 million cattle in feedlots with capacity for 1,000 head or more, slightly below last year. September placements were the lowest for the month since records began in 1996, marking the third consecutive month of placements sett...
Total Red Meat & Poultry September 2026 total red meat and poultry stocks totaled 1.97 billion pounds, down 1.4 percent from August despite typically increasing 0.8 percent during the month, and were 1.5 percent below September 2025 levels. The decline pushed total inventories to a new five...
