Food Prices Expected To Keep Rising

For more than a year, food manufacturers have been shaving package sizes and raising prices, declaring that they had little choice because of unprecedented increases in the cost of raw ingredients like corn, soybeans and wheat.

Now, with the price of grains and other commodities plunging, it may seem logical that grocery prices will follow. But while prices for some items like milk and fresh produce are dropping, those of most packaged items and meat are holding firm or even increasing. Experts warn that consumers should not expect lower prices anytime soon on most items at the grocery store or in restaurants.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Maschine]

When will the madness end. Everyone is out to screw and lie their way to profit. Something is wrong when the excuses for rising anything keeps changing.

The reality is speculation is killing consumers. If traders were forced to take delivery of goods before they could sell them, I believe most speculators would vanish and the market could set prices at proper levels.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Food prices up.

Luxury yatch prices down.

More tax breaks for the uber rich are needed.

[Eric8869]

What????????? First they said all the food prices were sky high due to fuel costs. Now that fuel costs are down they are blaming it on price of corn?

and the goverment is still paying farmers NOT to grow things and subsidizing prouducts made from corn that aren't cost effective (ethanol).

Give me a break! American Farmers are raping this country. (and I come from a farm family)

[harriettubman]

Food can continue to rise but that doesn't mean I have to buy it. If something I like gets to high to purchase, I won't buy it. No one is going to have me over a barrel. The MSM kept saying the cost of fruit was going up. Let it and i'll buy canned fruit or do without.

[brooklyncitizen]

Well if this is what it takes for people to stop eating processed foods and consuming so much meat and poultry then it's for the best. Americans may finally start slimming down in the process.

[Eric8869]

Heck no - I can deep fry anything and put it in ranch dressing.

[truthforme]

LOL

[jinjinpinti]

Actually it is good news if the price of meat and "packaged goods" is rising. It isn't good for you, anyway. Meat, if eaten, should be done only in small compliments to veggies, and packaged, read processed, foods should be shunned like the plague. We go to our neighborhood Southeast Asian market and choose meat and produce produced by local farmers. It's cheaper and tastes better.

[Eric8869]

Until you get poisoned

[olderdem]

Probably the same economists that said oil would go to $200 before seeing $100 again. Some have difficulty with anything except a straight line.

So if the food industry wasn't able to pass along rising costs when the economy was busltling, why would they be able to keep increasing prices when the economy falters. How many restaurants will go out of business as fewer customers eat out. How many will by higher end food products?

The cost of producing food has come down, so will the price.

[Cookie100]

Everything but bananas have gone up. But this year, I got a local free range turkey for $.99 cents a pound. Last year $1.69 a pound, don't know what happened?
Found it less expensive this year than last.
Gas has gone down so much, I complained at my market, they said, their pay isn't going up, just the price of everything. Why?
When gas was $4.50 a gallon I could see it, but now it's $1.89, why is everything else going up if transportation costs are going down and wages are frozen?
Big corporate farms are next to cut off their noses, screw Chevron. They're the oil industry and the corporate farmer as well!
Have us over-a-barrel.

[sheila]

well, when are they going to try to make a "silver lining" out of this mess and start reducing waste, gluttony and obesity by making things SMALLER? many, many, many of us don't have 4 ravenous kids at home, yet we are forced to buy giant loaves of bread, for one example. restaurants? can't they cut prices and cut portions, so you don't end up bloated, overweight, lugging a doggy bag and/or tossing a bunch of perfectly good food in the trash?

we are a nation of over-consumers and wasters. "economies of scale" should not be the defining characteristic of our nation and our economy, especially when it comes to food. small, locally-grown, healthy, non-earth-depleting/poisoning, foods should be the norm, like in Europe. everything tastes better there for a reason...

i wold like to see re-usable packaging, smaller (or at least customizable) portions available, and much more incentive for local foods that are in season. i imagine some sort of standardized packaging (with a tare weight prominently displayed) that you can bring in your re-usable grocery bag for loose lettuce, cereal, sugar, pasta, milk, coffee, bread, etc.

people just don't think "small and sustainable" but they need to start. food is a great place to reconsider how we look at our world. local, point of use energy solutions (conservation, storage, rooftop PV, microwind, geothermal heat exchange, passive solar, solar thermal, etc.) is another. bigger is not usually better...

[obamaluv]

Its Sara Palin and the GOP's falt in supporting Big Food. We need a windfall profit tax on these guys.

[prostock69]

I have been stockpiling soup, canned salmon and tuna, bags of rice and beans, powdered milk, and frozen vegetables. I'm afraid folks, this is just the beginning. By this time next year a gallon of milk will be $10 due to inflation from all the money we have been printing. We are preparing for the worst to happen. Better than not being prepared at all.

[JohnnyKong]

Don't worry, we can always get milk from Mexico for less. Look forward to a black market my friend.

[jinjinpinti]

Now take a trip to your local ordinance (gun) dealer, and call your home security contracter, because food hoarders are the first targets of the crimewave hunger pangs create in those less able to do their own hoarding.

[brooklyncitizen]

and pray tell how is anyone to know who is hoarding food?

[PDXTransplant]

I stopped at Safeway last night to buy a pint of whole milk (on sale 10/$10) to make a pumpkin pie and I thought I would also get a pint of heavy whipped cream and it was $5 dollars!! A PINT! So I bought the cheap store brand whipped cream in a can on sale for $2. Their frozen pies, I remember used to be $4 or $5 bucks - buy one get one free - now $9 dollars buy one get one free. I dont know how struggling young families and the elderly are making it.

[SlinkyTWF]

Cannibalism and dumpster-diving are my guesses.

[jinjinpinti]

As one of the "elderly, I have developed over a lifetime, a shopping method, that has us eating quite well here at our house. I cut coupons some, yes, but I know where to shop to find the best buys, utilize many food co-ops, farmers markets, discount bread and grocery outlets, and never spend money on junk foods or empty calories. A hot bowl of polenta with raisins, and spices in milk is a cheaper and better cereal or even dessert, than that chemical, sugar-laden fake crap they call cereal at places like Kelloggs, and you can buy polenta or oats, etc. right out of the bin food section or at your local co-op for 79 cents a #.

[brooklyncitizen]

impressive.

as a vegetarian i find that I consume less food than when I was eatinr flesh - grains and legumes and nuts really are filling as are berries and bananas....eating is tastier, simpler, cheaper.....the most expensive item for me now is soy milk which is a staple.

[PDXTransplant]

The same thing is going on with your non-food items too. Notice the size of the bottle or container you normally would buy and check the ounces - they've all gradually gone down in size, but the prices are going up. I do not like having the wool pulled over my eyes. Check the bottom shelf for less expensive items when shopping for food and non-food items, because that is where they put it.

[Billie]

I almost bought a "family sized" loaf of bread the other day, but checked the ounces and it was the exact same as the regular sized bread...they just sliced the bread way thinner and tried to conceal it with the colorful packaging.

[Eric8869]

That is fraud

[sunbeltvoter]

I have figured out the problem with the economic experts. Someone forgot to include "minimum third grade level math" in the job description for a Nobel Prize Economics Professor at Princeton and Harvard. They are math challenged. They say "food prices went up 0.5 percent last month." A jar of mayo at my discount supermarket that was $1.80 last year and $3.00 last month and $3.50 yesterday is not going up in price at 0.5% rates. Are there any Economics Experts that can do simple math?

[dhertzfe]

It's all about greed from the food industry. Oil prices have dropped but food prices rise. It's called gouging the consumer. For example, coffee here in CA for Folgers is 13.99 for what used to be a 3lb can. The can now holds only 1lb 11oz. Two years ago the 3lb can used to cost 6.99 for an actual 3lb can of coffee. I now buy store brand products. The name brand products can all go to he!! as far as I am concerned. If times are rough, then it should be rough EVERYONE and not exclude big corporations.

[Billie]

Exactly, that's what I do too: buy the store brands. And whatever is on sale. I have no brand loyalty because the corporations behind them are so shifty and exploitive. It's all a gyp. I started making soup from scratch as well and it is way better, plus less sodium.