What is going on in this country with the price of food?

I just went to the grocery store and potatoes {the store brand} was 7.99 for a 10# bag.it’s bad enough with gas, now we are paying to high a prices for food too.definitely going to go get another bag of seed potatoes.grow your own maybe prices will go down.

Answer #1

I remember a chemistry teacher telling me that if we could convert hydrocarbons into carbohydrates we could feed the world. In a way this is exactly what modern farming does. Petroleum powered tractors and combines allow farmers to work far more land than anyone would have imagined generations ago. Petroleum derived synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers have greatly increased the yeilds of farmland. The ability to transport produce hundreds or thousands of miles allows huge farms and food processing plants to lower the cost of food through economy of scale.

Our cheap food depends on cheap petroleum. Petroleum prices have shot up because worldwide demand has greatly increased. Demand does not account for all of the increase in the price of oil; part of it is the weakness of the dollar. The US dollar value has plumeted compared to other world currencies.

The ethanol boondogle has also increased the price of food. Corn becomes high fructose corn syrup to sweeten our soda and foods. Corn feeds our livestock so most of the meat, foul, and farm raised seafood we eat starts out as corn. Corn is chemically seperated into constituents and food additives that are recombined to make new foods. While our government still gives huge subsidies to corn growers the demand of corn for ethanol will continue to drive the price of food up. As I understand it, it takes about a gallon of petroleum to make 1.25 gallons of ethanol (and that is the most optimistic estimate I’ve seen) so ethanol from corn will never make us energy independant.

Expect the price of food to continue to rise. As Americans we have been spoiled by cheap food. As food prices rise we will spend more and more of our money on food and have less for other luxuries. In other words our standard of living will decline.

Answer #2

I know!! milk is almost six dollars! and we have a big family so we need like 4 gallons of it, everything so expinsive now.

Answer #3

I don’t know about there - but here, minimum wage went up so everywhere is raising prices for stuff.

Answer #4

What?!?!?! 10lb pound bag for 7.99 holy!!! We only pay 3.99 in canada for a 10lb pound bag, blame it on bush and his pointless war and all tax payers money he is throwing into it… the world is coming to an end…

Answer #5

I agree with you, the gas prices are crippling our country it takes gas to get the foods to the store so I guess that is why but if you notice everytime minimum wage goes up so does everything else everyone wants there share of your $1.00 raise or what ever it is but this country is in real trouble people can’t afford to hardly eat anymore and they can’t afford to have fun doing hardly anything greed is a sin and this country is going to fall because of it.

Answer #6

You can thank Bush’s ethanol economic policies for higher domestic prices. We’ve converted huge amounts of agricultural land to corn production for ethanol.

Sugar based ethanol is MUCH more efficient than corn based ethanol in terms of agricultural production, but Bush’ administration has refused to lift the punative sugar/ethanol import taxes designed to exclusively benefit the tiny domestic sugar cane industry.

Answer #7

My son goes to get the groceries. I look at the receipt that he brings home and everything (and I mean everything) has gone up and continues to go up. We are both disabled but our small disability checks stay the same. I can’t imagine my standard of living declining any more.

Answer #8

It’s ‘cause the gas is crazy therefore trasporting the food is more so the price is raised.

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