Justin Doria of Golden Star Burgers in Thornhill, Ont., has had a close relationship with his beef supplier for 40 years, but that hasn’t protected him from price hikes. He says he is paying about 15 per cent more for beef.

Nick Gasparro’s family has sliced and diced beef in a Bloor Street butcher’s shop in Toronto since 1958.

Forty minutes north in Thornhill, Ont., Justin Doria’s family has charred burgers in an old-school diner since 1964.

And more than 3,000 kilometres away, John Smith’s family has bred and grazed cattle on Alberta grasslands for three generations.

The butcher, the burger-flipper and the rancher all have a stake in what is becoming an increasingly tense moment in North American beef, and they all raise questions about what will come next.

The beef commodity price

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