Food prices are on the Rise!

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**Easy E**

Keep a close eye on your grocery bill, because food prices are climbing. Tuesday’s release of the March Consumer Price Index showed that food costs rose 0.4 percent for the second consecutive month. Over the past year, grocery costs have increased 1.4 percent.

Breaking this down a little more, meats, poultry, fish, and eggs posted the biggest price jump in March at 1.2 percent, while dairy prices added 1 percent. Fresh fruits shot up 3.1 percent and fresh vegetables declined 1.6 percent, with the overall fruits and vegetables index gaining 0.9 percent. You can see the recent leap grocery food prices (“food at home”) have made compared with the overall CPI in this chart:

Chart from IHS Global Insight.

Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight, said the upward trend in food prices is “somewhat worrisome” because it means consumers will be spending proportionately more of their income on trips to the grocery. That leaves less pocket money for other discretionary spending, which isn’t great for the economy.

As most avid carnivores are probably aware, meat prices have risen faster than almost every other food group for some time now. A deadly pig virus has limited the pork supply, and the domestic cattle herd is the smallest since 1951, according to Bloomberg. Feed prices for farmers also threaten to move higher, in part because of the conflict in Ukraine, a major exporter of corn and wheat.

On the produce side of things, prolonged drought and a long, cold winter have blighted fruits and vegetables. Even cereals and bakery products have gotten a tad more expensive, with prices inching up 0.2 percent in March.

While hikes in food costs are never ideal, Christopher worries that this one is coming at a particularly inopportune moment, especially for low-income families. The U.S. food stamp program, SNAP, suffered huge across-the-board cuts last November, and another round of reductions is underway in some states.

In better news for grocery-goers, the food-pricing surge may taper off soon. IHS Global Insight expects costs to increase through the second quarter of 2014, but then more or less plateau for the rest of the year.

Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/04/15/food_prices_rising_march_consumer_price_index_shows_grocery_prices_jumped.html

Discuss amongst yourselves....

**kronk**

What the hell was that food price spike in 2011? Corn prices?

**Jihadin**

Think it was corn for ethonol that jacked the prices up in that time frame. I want to say Dem's pushed for more ethonol in gasoline.

**kronk**

Jihadin wrote:
Think it was corn for ethonol that jacked the prices up in that time frame. I want to say Dem's pushed for more ethonol in gasoline.

fething Corn Speculators!

**Jihadin**

Couple dollar rise on my whiskey to...was not happy....

**kronk**

Jihadin wrote:
Couple dollar rise on my whiskey to...was not happy....

I can't even find mine since I moved up here to Yankeeland.

Spoiler:

**Jihadin**

World Market near you?

**Platuan4th**

Jihadin wrote:
World Market near you?

This, This, This.

They've got all sorts of stuff I couldn't find after moving.

**Jihadin**

My version of a cheaper Piers One but with booze to

**cincydooley**

I live in Cincinnati and can send you some Rowan's if you really want kronk. Among pretty much any other bourbon you'd want.

**Jihadin**

Jebus Dooley. You make Cinn sound like its nothing but drinking there....

**WarOne**

That's it.

Time to resort to cannibalism.

**Jihadin**

Cannibalism? Pppfftttttt. Get PC please. Its craving "Long Pork"....or Crow

**dementedwombat**

I've taken a data analysis class at some point, so I'm supposed to be qualified to interpret data, but that graph still looks like a bunch of squiggly lines. My instincts are telling me that the liens are too squiggly for me to get worried quite yet.

**PrehistoricUFO**

Good thing my amazing diet to maintain my amazing physique consists mostly of vegetables. The victories keep coming!

**cincydooley**

Jihadin wrote:
Jebus Dooley. You make Cinn sound like its nothing but drinking there....

Haha. Not exactly, though we do have like, 7 microbrews presently operating and used to have the most in the country.

It's just easy to get lots of good bourbon here because Kentucky is just across the river

**Ouze**

Very anecdotal, but we've seen a rise on meat prices here.

**Jihadin**

They need to release Bundy cows then

**Relapse**

Jihadin wrote:
They need to release Bundy cows then

Crap! The Bundy thread is beginning to bleed thoughout the OT!

**LordofHats**

Relapse wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
They need to release Bundy cows then

Crap! The Bundy thread is beginning to bleed thoughout the OT!

Don't worry. Soon there will be a healthy shot of Zimmerman to remind us what we should truly be arguing over.

Oh look there it is

**Jihadin**

Who did you think shot the bull?

**LordofHats**

Jihadin wrote:
Who did you think shot the bull?

The bull shouldn't have been wearing the hoodie

**Jihadin**

That's a lot of steak gone to waste....

**LordofHats**

Jihadin wrote:
That's a lot of steak gone to waste....

It probably would've ended up in trashy McDonalds mystery meat anyway (i hear prices are going up. Maybe we should reexamine how we pay farms not to use their land).

**Jihadin**

Serious question for you Lord. Everyone else can answer to. You notice South American beef hitting our markets to? I've seen in Walmart beef from Brazil and Argentina.

**LordofHats**

Jihadin wrote:
Serious question for you Lord. Everyone else can answer to. You notice South American beef hitting our markets to? I've seen in Walmart beef from Brazil and Argentina.

No idea. I don't buy much beef mostly because I'm too lazy to cook it and even if I wasn't I'm in tragic lack of a grill

This is America. There's only 1 right way to cook a flank steak.

I guess it wouldn't surprise me. Don't they keep cutting down rainforest to make room for grazing and farm land?

**kronk**

Beef prices here are dumb, as are fish prices. Quality of both is ass, too.

I miss Houston so much.