1/14/09 Steak vs Hamburger

The late, great Paul Newman once stated, "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?" Of course Paul was speaking about fidelity to his lovely wife of many years. The American public who has been suffering through an economic downturn is today stating, "Why go out for steak when you can more afford hamburger!" For restaurants, that means middle and upper income families are eating out a lot less. This means the beef industry who supplies a large amount of beef to such restaurants has been hit hard. Chicken and pork producers have also seen a decrease in the last several months, but not nearly as drastic a hit as the beef producers. The exception to this downturn in beef sales however is that the call for end meats generally used for ground beef has raised due to the fast food burger places doing really well now. Rather an - oh, that's bad, oh that's good situation for the beef industry. Interestingly, even with the economic downturn, the population still wants their beef; they're just buying it in the form of hamburger rather than steak.