Learning to cope with the high cost of food

Posted 8/21/12

It will come as no surprise to anyone who does the family’s grocery shopping. The price of food just seems to keep going up and up, and leading the climb right now are meat and poultry, eggs and …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Learning to cope with the high cost of food

Posted

It will come as no surprise to anyone who does the family’s grocery shopping. The price of food just seems to keep going up and up, and leading the climb right now are meat and poultry, eggs and dairy, and fresh fruits. In the last five years, food price inflation has topped overall inflation, fueled by energy and transportation costs, weather events that impact agriculture, and the cost of processing, packaging and marketing food products. While food prices are less volatile than fuel prices, this comes as cold comfort to millions of Americans trying to stretch their food dollar to feed hungry families.

Between 2006 and 2013, the consumer price index (CPI) for “all-food,” a designation that includes both food eaten at home, i.e. from the grocery store, and food eaten out, rose 21%. (Americans eat about half of their food at home and half away from home.) And rising food costs come on top of stagnant or falling incomes for many wage earners.

High food prices hit lower income households harder. In 2012, middle-income families spent 12.3% of their income on food, compared to low-income households who spent 35.1% of their income, leaving less for other necessities. More than 14% of U.S. households were “food insecure” in 2012, and one in five households with children was affected by food insecurity.

In 2014, the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) projects that the cost of all food is expected to increase from 2.5% to 3.5%. Beef and veal prices are expected to increase 5.5% to 6.5% in 2014 (cattle inventory is currently at its lowest level since 1951, forcing retail beef prices to record highs). Pork prices are predicted to rise 9.4% and eggs by 5% to 6%. Citrus prices to date are up 21.3% over last year, due to a citrus disease in Florida and a winter freeze in southern California.

Economists point to the historic drought in California (the eighth largest economy in the world) as a major contributor to rising food prices, and when the drought will end is anyone’s guess. Throughout the Golden State, planners are currently working out how they would import water. And in the long-term future, numerous reports from government agencies, non-government science organizations and business consultants forecast that agriculture is one of our economic sectors most vulnerable to climate change.

Aside from the weather, there are others who call the food price increases a symptom of failed U.S. agriculture policy and failed energy policy, blaming free-trade agreements that drive food sourcing overseas, the consolidation of our food system into a handful of corporations that wield monopolistic power in the marketplace and drive small family farmers out of business (www.nffc.net/Learn/Fact%20Sheets/food%20inc%20and%20fresh.pdf). As usual, the end user always pays, and consumers are the end users, left to feel increasingly powerless over the consequences of a globalized, industrialized food system, which once promised (and for a long time delivered) cheap food. Yet now, after all, it turns out that the global food system also is vulnerable to high costs beyond its control.

Still consumers have choices, and there are steps they can take to combat high food prices. One way is to add another day or two each week to eating vegetarian meals. Another way is plant a backyard garden, or for those with no backyard, seek out a community garden and learn how to grow some of one’s own food. Buy local food from local farmers—at farmers’ markets, at roadside stands and from CSAs (short for consumer supported agriculture). Buy from local food processors and entrepreneurs. Help those who are most food insecure by supporting food pantries and food kitchens (and by the way, shame on Congress for cutting food stamp aid at the very time that food prices were rising).

For those living in the Empire State, there are educational programs like Eat Smart New York that teach consumers how to get more bang for their buck by shopping smarter and learning to prepare healthier foods on a budget. Erica Ferber, nutrition educator at Sullivan County’s Cornell Cooperative Extension, offers a few tips: Shop seasonally. Shop locally. Look for managers’ specials. Use coupons. Know your stores’ policies, such as senior-citizen discount days. Buy on sale and then freeze (a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk), or learn other methods to preserve food safely. Shop smarter (a 79-cent bag of dried beans is equivalent to buying four cans of beans). Reduce sugar beverages (soda and juices are a big budget taker), and drink more water (tap water, please!). Foods like oatmeal, rice and grains sold in bulk bins in health food stores often cost less.

Buy lower-cost meats and use a slow cooker. (Ferber also suggests for those so inclined to fish or hunt.)

Buy a whole chicken, learn to cut it up yourself, and use every part. (If you can’t use the carcass right away, freeze it until you’re ready to make soup.) Learn which vegetables keep longer—potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, etc.

And finally, Ferber says, don’t waste food. We Americans throw away 40% of our food supply each year, the equivalent of up to $2,275 annually per family.

All of this goes to say that by learning many of the skills and thrifty ways of our parents and grandparents, we can become more self-reliant and resilient during challenging and uncertain times, and that building a strong local food system would go far to making our lives more sustainable for the future.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here