Food Prices are Down in a Big Way
Posted: January 10, 2010
The economy is still suffering, unemployment is still high – but Americans can still afford to eat and eat well.
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, retail food prices at the supermarket decreased for the fifth consecutive quarter and are significantly lower than one year ago.
The informal “marketbasket” survey shows the total cost of 16 food items that can be used to prepare a meal was $42.90, down $3.13 from the third quarter of 2009 and $7.31 lower or about 15 percent less compared to one year ago.
Fifteen percent less than a year ago. Why are there no big news stories about LOWER food prices like the ones we saw when they were HIGHER? Is it just because good news is boring? This is GREAT news! We should be shouting it from the rooftops. According to USDA, Americans spend just under 10 percent of their disposable annual income on food, the lowest average of any country in the world. Why doesn’t anyone care about that? This is the greatest achievement of this great nation. And the people who are responsible for that, America’s farmers and ranchers, get no credit for it and instead are criticized.
It should also be duly noted that this great decline in food prices during 2009 came at the same time that ethanol production hit yet another record level. It seems there is no food versus fuel issue after all. But, as soon as food prices go back up again due to increased energy prices or some other problem, you can expect to see that argument resurrected.
Good thing that farmers are not in this business for the glory of it.
Kathy Said,
January 12, 2010 @ 3:35 pm
Making our food the cheapest is a NATIONAL DISASTER! Our farming industry has given us the cheapest PRODUCT which they have placed in most of our foods, it’s called corn! Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it’s good. Come on. Most Americans wouldn’t mind spending more on food if our farmers could give us better products, like more organics. How can this be great news when right now our country has the most obesity, most high cholesterol in the blood, most high blood pressure, rapidly increasing DIABETES and heart disease and cancer are still are number one causes of death STILL AFTER 100 YEARS!! Our food industry is an absoulte disgrace and our current agricultural system is killing us. This is a fact. READ THE LATEST FINDINGS IN “The China Study”.
Jim Said,
January 12, 2010 @ 10:25 pm
I wonder if the issue that Kathy raises has as much to do with diet as it does with longevity. If people live longer because of a decrease in malnutrition doesn’t it stand to reason they will have a greater risk of dying from some other cause such as cancer or heart disease. I mean think about it, we are all going to die so there will always be a fatal disease of some kind. Shouldn’t we focus more on the quality and length of life more than the final cause.