Are You Drowning Too?: Vegetables Are Up 38.9%, Coffee Up 25%, And Electricity Prices Are Rising Twice As Fast As Inflation

The Economic Collapse Blog ^ | 08/18/2025 | Michael Snyder

[AppyPappy]

Electricity is higher because producers are being forced to close existing plants and build new “green” plants

[Mogger]

If we didn’t import food as much from the southern hemisphere, of course prices would be up in July and August, as harvest time here is from August through October.

[SisterK]

I have been growing all my food forever

so I have no idea if this article is credible or not

[fatboy]

I’m not drowning due to retail prices. Why you ask?
Because we are debt free, live below our means, outside of necessary expenses we don’t insist on spending on anything and we save at least something out of every paycheck. It’s easy but it’s hard.

[silent majority rising]

The Blog would collapse with postive news, so no, it can’t report it. But what they can report is psycho BS that they know nothing about. Is the author also a Psychologist? How can he draw conclusions from the few (if he even did) persons that he interviewed. This is not reporting. It is Editorializing and should be categorized as such.

[fruser1]

A lot of blue states jacked up electric rates recently. You probably heard of NJ in the news.

The rates are typically even higher for commercial rates.

Ever notice how nice and chilly the grocery store is?

[MrRelevant]

Im doing just fine. Much better than in 2022 and 9% inflation. These clowns really try everyday to make the simple fact that this rise in specific items is nothing in comparison to what Biden and the Fed did to this economy for 2 years.

[nwrep]

Trump tariffs.

[Qiviut]

We moved last year & I had to leave my raised beds behind (old, wooden, starting to rot). I have built a few new ones (5 using cedar fence planks) & I did move 4 metal raised beds, but the issue is finding ‘good’ dirt for filling them at a reasonable price - very expensive .... then there’s the hauling, shoveling which is a real pain.

So, no more raised beds and I need some place for raising veggies. My solution is ‘straw bale gardening’. I did it several years ago with good success. We now live in the country, so I do not think I will have an issue with finding straw bales. A couple of T-posts, some fertilizer & row cover (which I would buy anyway for raised beds) will be the only expense. The straw from one year’s garden will be used for compost the following year. Once a raised bed is in place, moving it is a major big deal (I know from relocating the metal raised beds). With a straw bale garden, it’s easy to move.

I thought I would “buy local” this year, but I haven’t been that satisfied with the small markets that are local. I saw some produce I would buy at a farmer’s market an hour away, but that’s too much of a drive to do regularly. My raised beds are mostly for flowers although I do have jalapenos in one, & a medicinal herb garden in another, so the straw bale garden will be mostly for veggies next year. I’m excited about the prospect of my own veggies right out the back door of my shop.

[Jolla]

was getting all nervous on the coffee price, looked up my cost last year 15.99 for 18 oz bag, now one year later its 14.99 about 50 cents a cup - for me that is 50 cents a day, I think I will keep drinking coffee.

[Alas Babylon!]

Are tariffs to blame for 38% spike in wholesale vegetable prices? Experts weigh in

The 38% price increase is on wholesale prices, NOT retail. According to the article I linked:

To be sure, the spike in wholesale vegetable prices last month did not cause a jump in prices paid by shoppers. Vegetable prices faced by consumers went unchanged from June to July, government data showed.

[Georgia Girl 2]

I use the store bought potatoes and grow them in 5 gallon buckets. Works great. Especially the baby reds.

I can get more yield from a raised bed than I ever did from a regular garden and its easy to keep the weeds out. No tilling the soil either.

[Alas Babylon!]

I've bought a few of these from Amazon. They're 12 feet by four feet, 1 foot high, aluminum and you get two of them for $79. A real good deal:

I now have 9 of them. Yes, getting dirt is hard, but I have 20 acres in woods and fields, and a triple bagger on my tractor, so in the Fall I dump the shredded leaves and chopped grass directly into the beds, and it composts nicely over the Winter.

I'm in South Alabama, and the ground doesn't freeze, so microbes can compost all Winter.

[VeniVidiVici]

OTOH, items such as canned green beans, a staple for me, have gone through the roof.

I just paid about .70 can for No Salt Green Beans at Walmart. Frozen bag of broccoli florets was $1.15.

[Alas Babylon!]

Also, forgot to say, Those straw bales should work out really good, I hope you get massive amounts! As that straw decomposes it makes a perfect earthworm munch, and having those in your beds will really boost your fertility!

My issue is heat. In the Summer, it is blazing hot, 95-100 every day, sunny with popup thunderstorms everywhere, that seem to always miss my land! I am now making a system of 275 gallon totes with buried drip hoses.

It's more work, and I'm not getting younger, but once in place should make things really easy.

[Mr. Lucky]

My grandkids sell garden produce a a local farmers’ market. For some reason, this year’s zucchini crop was so big that they give it away for free.

[Qiviut]

At our old place, there was a former brush pile in the back field. When the dozers pushed trees, etc. into that pile (we cleared a couple of acres for pasture), they got some top soil as well. The pile was burned & what was left has rotted over the decades. That is where I got my dirt for my original beds and if I was really lucky, my brother took pity & got me a couple of scoops from that pile with his tractor. Being topsoil, the dirt was pretty good, little to no clay content. In the early years, when still affordable, I would add a couple of bags of Leaf Gro to each bed which improved the soil considerably. When Leaf Gro went from about $3 a bag to over $5, I built a ‘pen’ and started saving leaves in the fall for compost - worked well.

Our current place is 3 acres .... all ‘lawn’, some trees. No old brush pile (sigh). The first load of topsoil I got for the raised beds was ‘clean’ (screened), but has a lot of clay content. I added 25 pounds of sand to each bed. I think it will be ok after adding compost for a couple of years. The zinnias are definitely ok with that soil, my jalapenos are doing great & the herbs will grow in pretty much anything.

For the metal raised beds, I found another dirt source at a garden center. It is ‘river bottom’ dirt. Fairly fine, drains well and has a nice dark color. Two scoops will fill my 4 metal beds about 3/4 full - if I add 4 bags of compost to each bed, it gets the level about where I want it. I have the 2nd ‘scoop’ on the trailer now, need to shovel it off. So far, I’m $350 into just dirt .... not spending any more, thus the straw bale garden for next year.

The raised beds & straw bale garden location is near the shop which has water, so I should be good there. I haven’t contemplated drip hoses yet, but that would be the ideal situation - I can ‘noodle’ over how to potentially work that out this winter.

[bray]

Vegans hardest hit. Gas prices are dropping which lowers everything.

[Wallace T.]

The Economic Collapse Blog has predicted 11 of the past two recessions.

[sauropod]

Bkmk