Posted on 08/15/2007 7:08:15 PM PDT by shrinkermd
MIDLAND, Va. — The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.2 percent for the 12 months ending in July, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits.
Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why, despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the economy.
Meeting with economic writers last week, President Bush dismissed several polls that show Americans are down on the economy. He expressed surprise that inflation is one of the stated concerns.
"They cite inflation?" Bush asked, adding that, "I happen to believe the war has clouded a lot of people's sense of optimism."
But the inflation numbers reveal the extent to which lower- and middle-income Americans are being pinched.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its July inflation report that egg prices are 33.7 percent higher than they were in July 2006. Over the same period, according to the department's consumer price index, whole milk was up 21.1 percent; fresh chicken 8.4 percent; navel oranges 13.6 percent; apples 8.7 percent. Dried beans were up 11.5 percent, and white bread just missed double-digit growth, rising by 8.8 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
But those soybeans, as well as a lot of that corn used to go for livestock feed, and since now it isn't, the cost of feed has gone up, thus increasing the price of meat and poultry in the supermarket. And that increase is on top of the increase in shipping cost due to fuel price increases.
That's definitely part of the problem. Ethanol is a boondoggle that sends tax money to large grain companies. Biodiesel from non-food plants makes sense, ethanol from grains is no energy gain and it drives up food costs.
I just went and got about 100lbs of onions from a processors dump pile. I put them in panty hose and hung them in a tree to cure some more and I won’t be buying onions for a dollar a pound.
agree. good point about taxes.
corn is an ingredient in so many things, if you read the packaging closely.
her husband was a union railroad worker.
yes, she receives an ample pension.
i’ll bet your ass
glows in the dark.
You’re not planting enough..........you should have enough to freeze or can enough to last until the next crop is ready :) Well, not the potatoes, but everything else.
I did 20 pounds of maters this morning, I’ve got another 20 to do tomorrow. It’s too hot to cook them, so I’m just coring, quartering, and then tossing them in gallon freezer bags.
Lots and lots of pesos.
that’s right.
there’s a limited amount of farm land.
when some farm commodity goes sky high the fallow land comes out into production, but there are still limits.
they could leave the corn alone and
use kudzu.
Oh, lucky you!!!!!!!
I’ve never had any luck with root veggies, so I either get them from other folks, or have to buy them. I am getting potatoes this weekend, and then will get more from a different farmer in a mnth or so.
Usually my husband buys the milk around here (don’t ask me why, it just happens that way) so I about freaked out a couple weeks ago when a gallon of the store brand was $3.79. But that freak out was nothing compared to my sticker shock on Monday when it was $4.69 and the “name” brand was $5.79 s gallon.
Unfortunately much of that is the use of corn syrup as a sweetener. It’s an inferior product to cane sugar and a product that may well trick the body and promote weight gain. But it costs much less and has replaced cane sugar in most commercial food products. Some small bottlers still use cane sugar in their soft drinks.
I have no idea who to blame but it is obvious to anyone living on a retirement income as I am, that the cost of necessities has recently risen dramatically, and at a far faster rate than cost of living increases.
If a person is willing to eat beans and rice and cornbread then one can survive on almost nothing but just eating inexpensive meals has gotten very expensive.
I do remember when I was in college. My first four years I was on athletic scholarship and ate at the training table in additon to having other expenses covered. My last year, I had used up my eligibility and had to survive on a part time job.
I noticed that Wendys had a 99 cent salad bar and it had a large number of items including several types of ground or cubed meat. I would go in once a day and eat a huge amount of salad and dressings and drink water. Literally a huge meal for 99 cents.
I noticed a while back that they no longer have an unlimited salad bar, probably because too many people like me were surviving off it.
Dangerous pesticides and herbicides that have been banned for decades in the US are used liberally in most of the South and Central American countries and Mexico where so much of our winter fruit and produce is grown. Some of those chemicals have been proved to cause cancer in controlled tests, but the US allows foreign fruit and veggies treated with them to be sold here just as though they were grown under US regulations. Aint NAFTA just ducky?
AFAIC our health, and possibly our very lives, are more important to us than bargain prices for possibly dangerous or at least questionable food products from who knows where.
you’re preaching to the choir here.
high fructose corn syrup is in everything, including mcdonald’s ketchup.
hfcs goes into the blood stream immediately.
i avoid it.
I read somewhere that the drought in much of the US this past summer has caused some of the increased food prices.
I’m sure there are several reasons for the increase, but there has definitely been an increase.
On a positive note, we can all still buy cheap Chinese crap at Walmart. What a relief./s
LOL, But I have not been to happy with any of them after I picked up a cup of peaches in walmart and found it was from china. I don't think I want to eat any Chinese food packed in Chinese sewage water.
Around here we have mild weather and can leave root crops in the ground and dig them through the winter.
Yep.
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