Livestock producers will face more feed cost inflation next year than they have in a decade, challenging their ability to recover from a difficult, volatile 2020.

The Food Institute reports that food inflation, including the impact of the severe drought in the Midwest, will cost a family of four $351.12 more in food spending in 2013 than in 2012.

With two decades of experience in the protein business, I have seen the same lesson offered repeatedly; when supply exceeds demand, there are many losers and few winners. Economics should be prominent in the curriculum of poultry science students, because the principal lessons of economics are ignored by key management groups.