Your Expensive Cheeseburger Is a Taste of What’s to Come

When I was in grade school back in the 1800s, they fed us cheeseburgers extended to the frontiers of human palatability by hefty amounts of what some call “textured vegetable protein” but all the kids knew was soy. Nobody liked them. But Americans might start considering soy burgers this summer when they see what happens to the price of beef.

President Donald Trump’s war and tariffs are playing a huge role in pushing ordinary ground chuck prices to Wagyu-like levels. But beneath those relatively short-term shocks are the long-term effects of a heating planet. Every trip we take to the grocery store offers a lesson about how climate extremes on the other side of the continent or planet can hit our wallets. And beef is only the start.