Maybe there is more demand in Tampa for flank steak or less supply.
With respect to prices, let’s also count state and federal gasoline and diesel tax for vehicles in the food distribution system, then there’s the business tax on profits, the employee taxes, SSI, and OSDI, and health care, liscences and fees, inspections, etc. Taxes are the biggest slice of the pie. If you want to cut prices, cut gov’t out of the picture.
Well, yes, although...
Either government interference in the intertwined markets for grain and meat lowers the price of those products or it doesn’t. Given the low prices Americans pay for food (compared to the rest of the world), the evidence suggests American government interference lowers consumer prices *for those products*.
That doesn’t mean a net benefit. Just the opposite. It just means that true cost is obscured by laundering some of it through Washington.