An Osage County farmer struggles to keep up as inflation sticks around
OSAGE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A farm in Osage County is taking a hard hit as gas and food prices continue rising.
George Luebbering, a farmer at Tender N Tasty Beef, says with gas prices nearly tripling an hour trip to Columbia Farmers Market is hitting his pockets pretty hard.
"It's getting rough for our farmers and not just the one at the farmer's market, you know... all of them. The farmer's markets are typically smaller producers anyway and they operate on a smaller margin and so there isn't much to give on there," said Luebbering.
Luebbering says inflation is also making it difficult to sell a larger quantity of its products. While Luebbering says he has seen an increase in customer traffic. He says customers just aren't buying as much as they used to.
Because of that trend, Luebbering says he isn't making nearly as much money as he used to.
"I don't know maybe we should charge more it just seems kind of...you hate to you know we're selling food. You hate to charge too much for it but at some point, we got to recoup our cost," said Luebbering.
Food prices are on the rise and hurting the pockets of many consumers nationwide. According to ABC News, food prices are soaring at record levels.
The USDA also predicts all food prices are going to increase between 4.5 and 5.5 percent this year.
And while food prices are rising nationwide, it's pushing the local farmer to increase their prices at the market. Luebbering says his meat prices have nearly doubled over the past couple of years.
"Back then we sold hamburgers for 2.50 and 3.00 a pound and now were getting 5.50/6.00 a pound you know and our processing cost has doubled. You know from what they were when we started out," said Luebbering.
