Topic: Decade of quiescence over...
Anybody else noticing soaring food costs?
"After more than a decade of quiescence, inflation is returning - eating away at family pocketbooks and rippling through almost every segment of the American economy....
For most consumers, the closest encounter with inflation comes when they go to the grocery store, particularly the dairy section. According to the US Department of Agriculture, butter has gone from $2.84 cents per pound to $3.46. Milk is actually down from the beginning of the year. But it will probably go up soon, since wholesale prices are slated to rise 50 cents a gallon in May.
Behind the rise in dairy products is a 1.8 percent reduction in the nation's cow population. Dairy farmers, with the lowest prices in history in 2002, started reducing their herd sizes when beef prices started rising. At the same time, the US, concerned about mad cow disease, cut off imports of dairy cows from Canada. "It's typical of an inelastic product - small changes have a greater impact on price," says Mary Keough Ledman, a dairy economist in Libertyville, Ill."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0430/p03s01-usec.html
"Outsized U.S. price increases are already evident in the price of meats, poultry, fish and eggs. It looks like farmers have been able to pass on some of their rising costs of fuel, fertilizer and chemicals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just reported that meat prices are up 6.7% in March and 19.4% from a year ago. Dairy product prices have risen 8.7% month-over-month, and 34.5% year-over-year. Gains in poultry and fruit prices have been just as mind-boggling. While supermarkets have been unable to pass-through much of the price hikes, the pressures are building."
http://www.sherrycooper.com/article.php … bl20040408
"Some of the nation's biggest food companies, including Kraft Foods Inc., Hormel Foods Corp., Bob Evans Farms Inc., and Birds Eye Foods Inc. have said in recent months they are taking measures to pass on soaring dairy, soybean, corn, and meat prices to consumers."
http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story. … _N22186966
"Over the last 12 months, overall producer prices have risen 5 percent, their biggest 12-month gain since a 5.7 percent leap in December 1990, when oil prices were spiking in the wake of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5232999/
Food prices jumped 0.9%, biggest increase since January 1990, and up from a 0.2% rise in April. Analysts say more expensive transportation costs because of higher fuel prices is a factor in the increase in food prices
Milk went up .50 to .75 cents a gallon in my area. I walked into a store one or two weeks ago and milk had gone from $2.98 to $3.75 a gallon, basically overnight. I noticed the increase in butter over a month ago, .75 cents to $1 more a pound. An egg increase of about .40 cents a dozen. I went to buy a whole chicken today, this I hadn't done in maybe 2-3 mos.; what was a $3.25 4lb. bird then was today almost $6... I've never beheld a $6 4lb. chicken before in my life! It's still at the store.
My mate and I were then standing in front of the bacon, a woman in a rush parked herself next to me, her daughter with her... she looked over the increased prices of bacon (up more than $1 p/lb.) and said, "I'm not <bleeping> paying that much <bleeping> money for <bleeping> bacon... what the hell?" and she walked off. My mate commented about her use of expletives in front of her daughter... and I muttered under my breath how tip of the iceberg her sentiment was, daughter or not, that it was the sound of an US American beginning to feel the first realization of getting <bleeped> by their government.:x
Soaring gas prices are one thing, but mess with a Southern woman wanting bacon for her baked beans? Shoo-whee!, trouble's soon to follow!
I may joke momentarily, but I'm sure glad I don't have a bunch of hungry mouths to feed in my home. A larger family will easily go through one gallon of milk a day, and at an avg. $3.50 a gallon that's over $23 a week just for milk! Just how many chickens does it take to feed a family of five?
Snicker! Snort!, they haven't raised the price of Collard Greens yet so this Southern woman is still yet only muttering under her breath!
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Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we might as well dance.
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If you spin around on your chair really fast, things around here will make a lot more sense.
