Expert: Food prices are going up 'three times what we're used to in the last decade'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Yahoo Money

Expert: Food prices are going up 'three times what we’re used to in the last decade'

Stephanie Asymkos · Reporter
Thu, November 4, 2021, 11:21 AM

Americans — especially those on tight budgets – are feeling the pinch from rapidly rising grocery prices not seen in years, according to one expert, who offered a few tips to counter food inflation at the supermarket.

"We're seeing 5-6% food inflation in the U.S., three [times] what we’re used to in the last decade," Wells Fargo Chief Agricultural Economist Michael Swanson recently told Yahoo Finance Live. "It's having a bigger impact on fixed income and also people that are used to using some governmental supplement income."

The food supply chain breakdown and labor market shortage are to blame, Swanson said. To retain workforces, food manufacturers and producers are paying higher wages and shoppers are footing the bill in the form of heftier prices.

“We're seeing a permanent move up in labor costs,” he said. “With higher labor costs at restaurants and in the food manufacturing world, it makes your labor in the kitchen more valuable.”

How to save

{snip}

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. It sucks that the pandemic

Food stamps raise are going to be taken away.

Just when we need it to be able to eat for a month. I hate to see what I can get for my foodstamps now.

Btw fuck the poor hating,penny pinching,self serving vomitile fucking republicans ever trying to take our benifits away..for what?

More tax breaks for the rich and corporate welfare of course.

[OhZone]

2. Is it just me or is that headline seem alarmist?

It sounds like 300% not 5%.

We've had almost 0% long time, maybe since the crash of 2008.

5% over a year aint that bad really.

I mean my brother's Quest bars at Shop Rite went from 2.50 to 3.68, but are still 199 at Walmart.

hmmmm.

[PortTack]

3. The consumer is still in the drivers seat! Eat with the seasons, buy locally grown foods

If a particular vegetable or produce item is high, buy the one that’s less expensive. Nothing like reduced demand to drive prices down.

Don’t fall into their trap.

[Auggie]

4. +1