When you’re growing up in L.A., the sound of a grill being scraped signals that the weekend has started. Smoke drifts over the fence as somebody's tío takes his post at the grill, tongs in one hand, a Modelo in the other, waving off anybody who tries to help. The kids run laps around folding tables, asking for pepino con limón, while somebody's mom or tía yells from the kitchen to put the tortillas on the table before they get cold.
Carne asada in L.A. has never really been about the meat. It is how we celebrate a bautizo, a graduation, a Sunday with nothing else really going on. It is how families who never had much still make sure nobody leaves hungry. And when we can't do it ourselves, we go to the taquería down the street, the one that does it the way we like it, every single time. They know our order already, asking, "¿Y tu papá, cómo está?"
However, that bag of memories made of marinated meat costs more at the carnicería today. Same as the meat taquerias buy to put on the plate in front of you.
Beef prices in this country have climbed to record highs over the past year. In August, a pound of ground beef averaged $6.92, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The national cattle herd is the smallest it has been in 75 years.
A big part of that is the ongoing drought. Parched pastures have driven up the price of hay and feed, leaving ranchers to make the tough decision to sell off cows they would normally keep for breeding. Scientists are expecting drought in cattle country to get more frequent and a lot more intense as the climate warms, and herds can’t bounce back fast enough.