Beef mince long seen as the most affordable red-meat option for households is losing that status as prices continue to surge.As with butter earlier in the year, the cause is exports driving up prices. 80% of NZ beef is exported, and domestic prices are set by international markers - meaning the people where the food is produced (and who pay the environmental costs of that production in the form of polluted water and higher greenhouse gas emissions) can no longer afford to eat it. The dominance of exports also makes farmers immune to local consumer pressure, meaning the normal "market" solution - reducing demand - has no effect.RaboResearch senior animal protein analyst Jen Corkran said food prices had risen across the board, but beef mince had jumped far faster than most staples.
New Stats NZ figures showed in the year to October, overall food prices rose 4.7 percent, but the average price of a one-kilogram pack of beef mince climbed 18 percent.
Corkran said mince was now averaging $23.17 per kilo, meaning it was actually slightly more expensive than lamb chops, which sat at $22.27.
Which means that if we want affordable food, we need non-market solutions: export bans, domestic quotas, price regulation. Otherwise, if farmers aren't going to feed us, we have no reason to permit their industry to exist - and certainly no reason to continue to subsidise them with free water and free pollution and free emissions.