The pound of ground beef priced in ounces of gold across the post-1970 period. Ground beef is a useful benchmark because it sits at the intersection of agricultural and energy costs (cattle feed, fuel for processing and transport) and reveals the food-cost component of household inflation in stable monetary terms.
Analyst's Note
Beef has shown more variation in gold terms than bread, primarily because cattle production has had several supply-driven shocks (drought cycles in the U.S. plains, herd reduction policies, regional disease outbreaks). Despite this volatility, beef has cost roughly the same amount of gold across the 50-year period, with no persistent upward trend. The slight cyclical pattern reflects cattle-cycle dynamics rather than monetary effects. For the analytical investor, the beef chart confirms what the bread chart suggests: in real terms (denominated in stable monetary units), food has gotten slightly cheaper over the past half century due to productivity gains, despite headline dollar prices having risen 5–10x.