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Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

bloomberg.com

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Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#21

Post by pcl »

Aachen wrote: post #11
DecoPerson wrote: post #4

After reading this article, I want to stock up on more food for myself and my five dependents. Double our reserves of biscuits, cereals, frozen meat, frozen bread, canned food, preserves, long-life milk, honey, multivitamins, MREs, etc etc. Is this panic buying? Is it OK? Does it hurt other people? I’d be interested to hear some different points of view.

It's never bad to have a little extra if you have the storage space and rotate through it. If that unlikely hurricane comes, or whatever your area might suffer, you don't have to be a pepper to be a normal level of prepared. But don't panic buy. Don't now go to the store and stock up massively. Put in an extra shelf-stable item, and next time you go shopping do it again, but don't panic now. That's how you create a f…

> not as if the rolls all disappeared into thin air

No, they were going down the drain.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#22

Post by baybal2 »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #2

"thanks to a combination of poor weather, increased demand and virus-mangled global supply chains." Seems like a lost opportunity to create so much anxiety with a long piece like this, to then only have this single line to hint at a reason for the rise. Can anybody more economically minded clarify if this is just post-covid rebound supply chain prices or is this food prices adjusting closer to their 'real' cost? Also…

Last year we had:

1. Biblical scale locust infestation in much of Africa, and Asia

2. Floods in East Asia

3. Early winter in Russia, Ukraine, and North China

4. Failed, and missed sowing of grains in much of above regions

5. Shipping disruptions, and resulting food spoilage, and waste

6. Granaries busted, and people burning through many months worth of grain, and flour in much of third world due to initial COVID panic

7. Financial speculators having the best field run on agriculture in decades

8. Anxiety about point 6 repeating runs on food wholesalers again

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/10/nobel-winner-wfp-w...

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#23

Post by thaumasiotes »

jopsen wrote: post #6
cyberpsybin wrote: post #3

Here it comes. Cost of running money printer too hard.

Having we been giving much printed money to people who need more food? Most people in the western world aren't likely to buy more food, just because they have more money. Not saying, we won't see inflation, who knows, but I doubt we'll see it in household items.

> Most people in the western world aren't likely to buy more food, just because they have more money.

If you have more money and you use it to buy more food, that's not inflation.

Inflation is when you have more money and you use it to buy the same amount of food. Give people more money, and you will see the price of everything rise without seeing the amount of stuff they buy go up.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#24

Post by bobitsaboy »

Aachen wrote: post #18
bobitsaboy wrote: post #14

Prior to the pandemic, I always advocated for a couple weeks worth of non-perishables to be at the ready. Storms can cause issues getting to stores (or shipments arriving), and illness can make it a pain to make a weekly run. Now my significant other is entirely on board. When normal ingredients we used became unavailable, it caused us to continually try new things. I have to admit I was pretty surprised to see today…

> prices were increasing pretty steadily during the pandemic and now it's even worse. I can remember so many items being as cheap as 25 cents each during the 90s and into the 00s... How long have you been having a pandemic for? Joking aside (that sentence read a bit weirdly), I don't think you should compare what happened in the 90s with what happened since 2020-02. If inflation surpasses minimum wage in the long ter…

Simply comparing prices from the 90s onward. They've risen significantly more over time while wages haven't seen a bump here in Ohio since 2008.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#26

Post by refraincomment »

azalemeth wrote: post #7
z92 wrote: post #5

I don't get how food consumption can increase in a pandemic. Should be constant in or outside a pandemic situation. Possibly somewhere crops are getting rotten because of newly imposed export restrictions, or for some other things.

In the UK at least, it's very much due to new-found export (and import) restrictions. The price of food has slightly increased since brexshit, whereas its availability has plummeted: the number of varieties of vegetables stocked by my local Tesco, for example, has plummeted, and the stock sells out almost immediately after delivery.

How does Brexit even matter if border checks are suspended for imports?

Just the usual scaremongering.

I also shop at Tesco and the stocks haven't changed at all.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#27

Post by globular-toast »

DecoPerson wrote: post #4

After reading this article, I want to stock up on more food for myself and my five dependents. Double our reserves of biscuits, cereals, frozen meat, frozen bread, canned food, preserves, long-life milk, honey, multivitamins, MREs, etc etc. Is this panic buying? Is it OK? Does it hurt other people? I’d be interested to hear some different points of view.

You know it's panic buying and you know it will harm other people. That's why you want to do it yourself. You know that if others do it and you don't that it will harm you. So you take the "can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach and do it yourself. Is it wrong for an individual to "join 'em"? No. Is it wrong that individuals feel the only way to be safe is to "join 'em"? Yes. But that's not a problem you can solve by yourself.

The tragedy is that much of the food being stocked up in people's homes will go to waste as they don't have the facilities or knowledge to store it properly. Food suppliers have way better storage facilities than you do at home. They know how to keep food available all year round. There's also plenty of food to go around as should be blindingly obvious by observing the waistlines of people around you and that's including the fact that the food supply chain already has a ton of waste built in.

Tragedy of the commons.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#28

Post by alexf95 »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #8
z92 wrote: post #5

I don't get how food consumption can increase in a pandemic. Should be constant in or outside a pandemic situation. Possibly somewhere crops are getting rotten because of newly imposed export restrictions, or for some other things.

>I don't get how food consumption can increase in a pandemic. depression spurs eating binges. being inside what to do, oh lets make more advanced food. lets bake cakes with the kids instead of sending them out to play with friends. etc. etc. so increased consumption in combination with other, probably more important, pandemic problems.

But with most restaurants closing your will also have to subtract the food that would have been used there. Obviously most of them tried to change to a takeaway service, but I am pretty sure their overall customers went down by alot during all of this.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#30

Post by rightbyte »

DecoPerson wrote: post #4

After reading this article, I want to stock up on more food for myself and my five dependents. Double our reserves of biscuits, cereals, frozen meat, frozen bread, canned food, preserves, long-life milk, honey, multivitamins, MREs, etc etc. Is this panic buying? Is it OK? Does it hurt other people? I’d be interested to hear some different points of view.

As long as you eventually eat it, it is fine I guess.

It is like energy and power demand on the electical grid. You lower the peak power demand.

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