Beef and Substitute Items

•What was the impact of mad cow disease on the supply and demand for beef? The demand for beef remained strong. Chain restaurants reported no change in sales of beef. As a matter of fact, most customers who ate beef at restaurants didn’t even ask any questions about where the beef came from. The top 3 burger restaurants reported no change in sales. And some even increased. Its seems that consumers remained impervious the issue of mad cow disease. I believe it is because of a strong trust and confidence of the government regulations regarding protecting people from food with disease. The article also said that it was too early to get accurate responses from consumers at the time. Since then, I feel that demand for beef is still very strong.
•What happened to the price of beef as a result?
The price of beef went up. Matter of fact, it hit record highs. Resulting in better sales for substitute items.
•What was the impact of mad cow disease on the supply and demand for substitute items?
It seems to me that once the issue of mad cow disease became bigger, the demand for substitute items went up. The article says that Americans will act in one of two ways. We will either “run from beef” like the Europeans did in the nineties, or “rally behind the beef industry” like the Canadians. I feel that in recent years, we have indeed rallied behind the beef industry.
•What do you think happened to the price of substitute items as a result?
In the article, it says that if people were to become more knowledgeable about mad cow disease, then pork prices would drop because of the high inventories. The price of chicken is now stable due to high beef