As world prosperity continues its long term trending rise, particularly in the more densely inhabited nations in the continent of Asia, the demand for higher quality, wealthier status kinds of foods is increasing. Among the food most representative of this expanding and new found middle class wealth that people in the developing world, and especially in china, seek to consume proves to be beef. Naturally, as with all other commodities and food staples, supply and demand influences beef prices around the globe. Current day beef prices around the world are rising considerably as a result of a variety of supply and demand factors. On the supply side, a hard United States winter caused the cattle to not fatten up as they typically do, since they were so busy using their fat and energy trying to keep warm in the multi-year record low temperatures plaguing the country. On top of this, many cattle ranchers in beef producing countries around the world found themselves caught off guard, as they were coming off of the heels of recession, were short of cash, and were forced to cull their herds to make their cash flow work. Demand has been steadily rising around the world all this spring, and this is dramatically impacting beef prices around the globe, as well. As the perceived global recovery gains wings, consumers from China, to South Korea, to Brazil are all demanding greater quantities of beef, and they once again have new found money to spend on it, too. Their increased demand, at exactly the time that the worldwide beef supply has decreased, is pushing up the worldwide beef prices. Not only beef heavyweight the United States, but also rival beef producing and exporting nations like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Argentina, have found their quantities of beef brought to market diminishing in the last several years. With cattle prices, which directly impact the cost of beef per pound, rising over twenty-five percent from last year's lows, the prices of beef in different countries around the world is sure to be rising. In the following examples, we list beef prices not just in different regions of the United States, but also in some of the main beef consuming countries of our world.

1 lb. Ground Beef:

Sample of U.S. Prices (as of August 2010):

Portland, Oregon: $2.79 Little Rock, Arkansas: $3.10 Los Angeles, California: $5.29

1 lb. Ground Beef:

Sample of World Prices:

Canada: $3.07 Germany: $4.93 Australia: $5.75 Belgium: $6.06 South Africa: $7.04 London: $9.03 Paris: $11.20 Taiwan: $11.50