Gutted Middle Class and the Global Food Famine: America’s Descent Into Manufactured Scarcity

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of ground beef has surged 16.2% over the last year, the highest spike on record. But if you think that’s where this story ends—some isolated uptick in meat prices—you’re missing the forest fire for the trees. The truth is, the global food crisis has metastasized into the very marrow of American life. The UN’s World Food Program admits it openly: 343 million people are now trapped in severe food insecurity. That’s nearly the entire population of the United States. But the bureaucrats at the WFP spin this as an inevitable side effect of “climate emergencies,” “conflict,” and “economic instability.” Those are real factors—but they’re symptoms, not the disease. The disease is institutional rot, chronic underinvestment in resilient food production, and consolidation of control by a handful of agribusiness conglomerates. Historical Context: How Did We Get Here? Let’s rewind to the 1950s, when the U.S. cattle herd was comparable in size to today’s levels. In 1952, America had 157 million people—less than half today’s population—and a domestic food system that actually fed its citizens. Back then, family-owned ranches and smaller processors kept beef affordable and decentralized. But since the 1970s, a cartel of four corporations—Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef—has captured over 85% of U.S. beef processing, squeezing ranchers to the bone and hollowing out regional meatpacking capacity. Meanwhile, we outsourced critical agricultural inputs to foreign suppliers and let Wall Street commoditize every scrap of our food supply—futures contracts, derivatives, and speculative bets that drive prices skyward with every headline about droughts or war. Remember the 2008 food price crisis? Millions went hungry while Goldman Sachs bragged about record profits from commodities trading. We never fixed that system. We just papered over it with stimulus and PR campaigns about “resilient supply chains.” Manufactured Scarcity: The Cattle Collapse Now, in 2025, America’s cattle inventory has cratered to the lowest point since Truman was in the Oval Office—27.9 million head, down 13% since 2019. Ranchers will tell you why: Endless droughts decimating pastures Feed costs inflating beyond profitability Big processors setting prices so low producers can’t survive And yet—consumer demand remains steady. So the price rockets up, conveniently padding corporate margins. That’s not capitalism. That’s a cartel economy. Counterarguments Debunked You’ll hear pundits claiming this is a “necessary correction,” or that “beef is a luxury anyway.” Let’s be clear: Protein is not a luxury. It’s essential nutrition. The problem is not “consumer demand.” It’s systemic underproduction and profiteering. Inflation statistics have been whitewashed—core CPI strips out food and energy, masking the real pain for working families. If inflation were truly “low,” nearly two-thirds of Americans wouldn’t be living paycheck to paycheck, forced to decide whether to buy groceries or pay rent. Economic Cannibalism: The Evisceration of the Middle Class The corporate media obsesses over “strong jobs numbers,” but UPS just announced 20,000 job cuts—not to mention 73 facilities shuttered, with another 90 on the chopping block. This isn’t a footnote. It’s a flashing red siren that our consumer economy is bleeding out. Ask yourself this: If the economy is healthy, why are mass layoffs accelerating while the cost of survival explodes? The answer is clear: We have shifted from an economy of productive output to an economy of financialization—where the top 0.1% manipulate supply chains, extract wealth, and gaslight the public with talking points about “transitory inflation.” Historical Analogy: Rome’s Bread and Circuses Ancient Rome faced a similar crisis: a bloated elite hoarded resources while ordinary citizens begged for subsidized grain. The Senate responded with spectacles—bread and circuses—to distract the masses as the empire decayed from within. Today, our bread is $6 a pound, our circuses are TikTok videos, and our senators are corporate lobbyists in $5,000 suits. Consequences: What Happens Next If these trends continue unchecked, here’s what you can expect: Ground beef will become an occasional indulgence, not a staple protein. Food insecurity will creep further into the middle class, obliterating generational wealth. Consolidation of food production will make supply shocks more frequent and severe. Political instability will rise, as millions lose faith in institutions that fail to protect them. This is not hyperbole. This is historical precedent. What Can Be Done? We don’t have to surrender to this orchestrated collapse: Reinvest in regional, decentralized food systems. Break up agribusiness monopolies. Ban speculative trading in essential food commodities. Incentivize domestic production over imports. End the gaslighting—acknowledge that inflation is crushing working Americans. If we do nothing, the next time you see a $1,860 grocery bill, it won’t be in the Hamptons—it will be your own.

Gutted Middle Class and the Global Food Famine: America’s Descent Into Manufactured Scarcity

Bill Brocius Jul 7

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