Oct. 30, 2013, 9:53 a.m. EDT

Eat meat? Prepare to pay up

Why its getting more expensive to be a carnivore

By Catey Hill

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While overall consumer prices increased just 0.2% in September, and only a little over 1% this year, dont tell that to shoppers in the meat and produce aisles at the supermarket.

Food costs have outpaced other staple items during the past year, climbing 1.4% according to the consumer price index released Wednesday. But meat prices -- which include beef, poultry, eggs and fish rose 2.9%.

If youve been buying burgers or steaks, youve likely noticed. Lewis Mandell, professor emeritus of finance and economics at SUNY Buffalo and author of What to Do When I Get Stupid, says that this is due in part to the fact that there were severe droughts in the southwest in 2011 and 2012, which caused ranchers to sell off cattle at distressed prices, lowering the cost of beef. But, as the economy has recovered, consumers have increased their demand for beef which, combined with a decreased supply, has helped push up prices, he says. In fact, prices for some slaughter-ready cattle hit an all-time high of $132 per hundredweight. Whats more, during the next year, the price of red meat is expected to continue increasing as per capita meat consumption increases, says IbisWorld analyst Jeffrey Cohen.

And its not just red meat thats causing those high meat prices. Cohen says that prices for poultry and pork -- in addition to beef -- have been rising because the price of corn has gone up. As the most-produced crop in the United States, corn is a major ingredient in most animal feed, says Cohen. Increasing corn prices are passed on to livestock farmers in the form of higher feed prices because corn is a key ingredient for cattle, swine and chicken feeds.

Vegetarians havent been immune to the grocery store price hikes either. Prices for fruits and vegetable are up 3% over the past year, but theres some hope there: Wholesale vegetable prices dropped 18% last month.

While grocery shoppers have no doubt noticed those price hikes, some store goods have been spared the price jumps. Prices for nonalcoholic beverages and other beverage materials are actually down 1.8% compared to last year, and dairy and related products are only up 0.8%.

Even outside of the grocery store aisles, consumers are likely to feel the food price burden. The cost of food eaten outside of the home is up 1.9% for the year. While its hard to pinpoint the exact reasons for higher eating out costs, Hart Hodges, an associate professor for economics at Western Washington University and the director of its Center for Economic and Business Research, speculates that it may have to do, in part, with two things: 1) the rising cost of key food items like beef and 2) the fact that restaurants tend to be more locked into their menus, while people who cook at home can be more flexible and substitute less expensive items for more expensive items.