MEAT MARKET BOOMS THANKS TO DIET CRAZE.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The high-protein diet Noun 1. high-protein diet - a diet high in plant and animal proteins; used to treat malnutrition or to increase muscle mass diet - a prescribed selection of foods craze that has people pigging out on steak, chops and even bacon may be plumping up meat prices. ``Confirmed pasta eaters are now red meat eaters,'' says Chicago analyst Bill Plummer, who is among the industry watchers contending that the phenomenon is boosting prices for meat on the wholesale level and on commodity markets. The high-protein weight-loss diet has been promoted in such best sellers as ``Protein Power'' and ``Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution.'' It's a meat lover's dream because it recommends lots of protein instead of carbohydrates. At the same time, prices are rising for meat and livestock futures, which are speculative contracts for cattle, hogs and pork bellies Pork Bellies The commodities underlying the majority of futures contracts trading pork livestock. Notes: A pork belly is the actual name for the cut of the hog. This cut is then used for commercial pork supplies of bacon, pork meat, etc. . Prices charged by wholesalers are rising, too. Demand for beef is expected to increase 1.6 percent over last year, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association National Cattlemen's Beef Association or NCBA, an advocacy group for beef producers in the United States, reports that it works "to increase profit opportunities for cattle and beef producers by enhancing the business climate and building consumer demand. said Friday. Demand for pork is up 2.3 percent this year, according to the National Pork Producers Council. Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. are in the healthy 70-cent-a-pound range. And wholesale prices for fresh pork bellies, from which bacon is made, have flirted with the 80-cent-a-pound mark. Dan Vaught, a livestock analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis, said the high-protein fad is playing a role in bolstering hog prices, which traditionally drop when people put their grills away as summer and BLT 1. BLT - /B-L-T/, /bl*t/ or (rarely) /belt/ Synonym for blit. This is the original form of blit and the ancestor of bitblt. It refers to any large bit-field copy or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling operation done on pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS and season end. ``I certainly don't think it's hurting,'' said Alisa Harrison, a spokeswoman for the beef association. But she also points to healthy disposable incomes and an improving economy in Southeast Asia, especially in meat-hungry South Korea. |
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