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Food costs keep rising
Assistance programs working families hit hard by price hikes
By SARA STEFFENS/MediaNews Group
Article Created: 03/19/2008 08:14:15 AM PDT
Four-dollar gallons of milk are just the beginning.
With sliced wheat bread topping $4 a loaf and eggs selling for $3.50 a dozen, even frugal shoppers can’t escape the sharpest spike in food prices in nearly two decades.
“It means I have to buy less,” said Thelma Johnson of San Pablo, pushing her half-full cart out of a Richmond Safeway this month. “I can’t buy as much meat as I used to. The only time I buy meat now is when I catch a sale. I’m eating more vegetables, which is probably good for me.”
Overall, food prices rose 4 percent in 2007, nearly twice as much as usual and the biggest single-year increase since 1990, according to the economic research service of the USDA.
And in 2008, prices are expected to surge another 4 percent.
For many consumers, growing grocery bills pale in comparison to the impact of rising fuel costs and the housing market slump, said Ephraim Leibtag, an economist who forecasts food prices for the USDA.
But for lower-income households - especially seniors on fixed incomes and families with small children - food costs hit hard.
“Those are the consumers that $4 milk is really going to put a crimp on their budget,” Leibtag said.
Rising fuel and energy prices are part of the problem, driving up costs for both farmers and retailers.
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I could see that happening with a portion of the population. Some will just pay anyway, and those on welfare will demand that they get more money for food stamps.
As so as the ground thaws out, I'm rototilling up about 50% more garden space. We don't have a grocery store within 15 miles of us and I can't afford the gas to run out for any little thing. If we don't have it, we'll have to do without.