Jack opens with two pretty idiotic sentences, but the gist of the piece is good so I'm gonna allow it:

The rising cost of living is impacting nearly every good, including beef. From December 2020 to December 2025, the average price of steak rose by over $3 per pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (This is about a $2-per-pound increase after adjusting for inflation.)

Prices rising is the "cost of living" increasing so the first sentence is circular. The latter, "adjusting" an individual price by a general change in prices (of which it forms part) is also circular, but mostly just misleading... what you'd be trying to say, then, is that the relative price of steak increased. Fuck "inflation" or various adjustments to it.

Further, look at that Big Beef cartel capitalizing on their market power!

(that's sarcasm, ICYMI)

These data show that, in December 2020, meat-packers paid cattle farmers $2.44 per pound of unprocessed beef, which they sold to grocers for $3.33 after processing. That's a farm-to-wholesale price spread of 89 cents. By December 2025, this price spread had decreased to 27 cents while the price meat-packers pay for beef more than doubled to $5.15. This indicates meat-packers are tightening their belts, not making out like bandits.

"It's not corporate greed that's driving up the price of beef at the grocery store; it's the fact that it's now much more expensive for meat-packers to buy beef from farms. This isn't due to cattle farmers colluding to raise prices. There are simply fewer cows.""It's not corporate greed that's driving up the price of beef at the grocery store; it's the fact that it's now much more expensive for meat-packers to buy beef from farms. This isn't due to cattle farmers colluding to raise prices. There are simply fewer cows."

soooo, you're telling me relative prices went up after quantity fell?! (U.S. have about 10% fewer beef cattle than five years ago.) Shocker.