price

The Mythology of Rice and Beans

Zachary Bartsch3 Comments

I’ve written about proteins twice before. Once concerning protein content generally and then another concerning amino acid content of animal proteins. The reason that I stuck to animal proteins initially was because I held a common and false belief: Singular vegetarian foods aren’t complete proteins. The meat-eaters gotchya claim is that meats contain complete proteins. After all, we’ve heard a million times that beans and grains are often eaten together because they form a complete protein. The native North Americans? Corn and beans. Subcontinent Indians? Rice and Lentils or chickpeas. Japan? Rice and soy. Choose your poor or vegetarian population in the world, and they combine beans and grains. We’ve always been told that it’s because the combination constitutes a ‘complete protein’.

But you know what else constitutes a complete protein? Any of those foods all by themselves. What the heck. I haven’t been lied to. But I’ve certainly been misled. Let me briefly tell you my research journey. My recommended daily intake (RDI) are from the World Health Organization and the amino acid data is from the US Department of Agriculture. Prices are harder to pin down in a representative way, but I cite those too.  

Continue reading →

The Price of a Complete [Animal] Protein

Zachary Bartsch2 Comments

I wrote about the protein content of different foods previously. I summarized how much beef versus pea and wheat flour one would need to eat in order to consumer the recommended daily intake (RDI) of ‘complete proteins’ – foods that contain all of the essential amino acids that compose protein. These amino acids are called ‘essential’ because, unlike the conditionally essential or non-essential amino acids, your body can’t produce them from other inputs. Here, I want to expand more on complete proteins when eating on a budget.

Step 1: What We Need

To start, there are nine essential amino acids with hard to remember names for non-specialists, so I’ll just use the abbreviations (H, I, L, K, M, F, T, W, V). The presence of all nine essential amino acids is what makes a protein complete. But, having some of each protein is not the same as having enough of each protein. Here, I’ll use the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines for essential amino acid RDI for a 70kg person. See the table below.

Step 2: What We Need to Eat

What foods are considered ‘complete proteins’? There are many, but I will focus on a few animal sources: Eggs, Pork Chops, Ground Beef, Chicken, & Tuna. Non-animal proteins will have to wait for another time. Below are the essential amino acid content per 100 grams expressed as a percent of the RDI for each amino acid. What does that mean? That means, for example, that eating 100 grams of egg provides 85% of the RDI for M, but only 37% of the RDI for H.

Continue reading →

“The Pope and the Price of Fish”

Jeremy Horpedahl1 Comment

Christians across the world are observing the season of Lent right now, concluding this week. This important period of religious observance involves personal sacrifice of some sort, and for Western Christians a common form of sacrifice is abstaining from consuming meat on Fridays during Lent. But there is one exception: most Christians allow consumption of fish on Fridays, in lieu of other kinds of meat.

But abstaining from meat on Fridays was not always a practice reserved for Lent. Catholics used to abstain from meat for the entire year prior to a 1966 decree by Pope Paul VI. This decree relaxed the rules on fasting and decentralized them. In the US, Catholic Bishops chose to eliminate meatless Fridays, except during Lent.

No doubt this was an important religious change, but it was also an important economic change. And the first question an economist would ask is: how did this impact the price of fish? In our simple supply and demand framework, this should result in a decrease in demand, which would lower the price of fish. Did that happen?

In 1968, economist Frederick Bell asked just that question in an article published in the American Economic Review titled “The Pope and the Price of Fish.” The short answer is that yes, the price of fish did indeed decline!

Continue reading →

Twenty Years of Animal Protein Affordability

Zachary Bartsch2 Comments

Have you heard the hubbub about eggs? People say that they’re expensive. My wife told me that if she’s going to pay an arm and a leg, then she may as well get the organic, pasture raised eggs. Absolutely. That’s what the substitution effect predicts. As the price ratio of low-quality to high-quality eggs rises, we’re incentivized to consume more of the high-quality version. It has to do with opportunity costs.

Consider a world in which the low-quality eggs cost $2 and the high-quality eggs cost $6 per dozen. Every high-quality egg costs 3 low-quality eggs. You might still choose the high-quality option, but you know that you’re giving up a lot by doing so. Consider the current world where low-quality eggs are priced on par with high-quality eggs. Now, the opportunity cost of consuming the fancy, pasture-raised eggs has fallen. When consuming one high-quality egg costs you one low-quality egg, it’s much easier to opt for the high-quality version. You’re not giving up as much when you purchase it.

For vegetarians, the recent price swing has probably been rough. Not eating meat, they’re facing the price squeeze more so than their omnivorous counterparts. Through the magic of math, median wages, and average retail prices, the figure below charts the affordability of eggs and dairy products.* The median person has been facing falling egg affordability for two decades. Indeed, it’s only been the past few years, punctuated by the Covid crisis, that consumers experienced more affordable eggs.

Dairy products, however, have become much more affordable. The median American can now afford 50% more of their namesake cheese. Further, we can afford 20-25% more whole milk and cheddar cheese. So, the vegetarians are not so poorly off after all.

But how do meatier sources of protein compare?

Continue reading →