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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

#51

Post by whelming_wave »

bobitsaboy wrote: post #24
Aachen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

that sounds like the general trend of wages in the US to not adjust upwards since Reagan’s presidency

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#52

Post by Cederfjard »

nelsonmandela wrote: post #37

Closed borders, no students/backpackers, farmers unprepared to pay minimum wages to Australians is resulting in a lot of produce being plowed back into the ground. I just don't know how this economy keeps rolling. How can farmers meet the payments on their loans? Reading 'The great depression: A diary' and looking at the world today just shocks the hell out of me. We are following it step for step and the crash is go…

Am I interpreting this correctly that there’s a minimum wage that applies to Australians but not foreigners, and farmers thus rely on foreign labor?

Edit: In Sweden we have/have had similar situations with temporary immigrants that for example pick berries for exploitative wages, but that’s because there’s no actual minimum wage per se - in the rest of society decent wages are ensured by strong unions (except in areas where demand is high anyway, like say for software developers).

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#54

Post by NullPrefix »

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…

>Flour, sugar, etc. were all a real pain to get a hold of

I see that as a win. Neither flour nor sugar is essential or healthy.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#57

Post by gremlinsinc »

johbjo wrote: post #29

Overall production/consumption has probably decreased. This means that food has has higher relative share of consumption. Therefore food prices shift right?

Production has decreased, or at least ability to ship it has.

Consumption is probably the same for most families, albeit they may buy 10% more to make sure certain staples are good in case of a shortage.. more so during the ebb/flow of covid-19 waves and lockdowns.

So a family might end up wasting more food just to be sure they have enough for planned meals or alternatives.

A lot of people are having mental health issues from lockdown, that can affect eating behaviors as well - depression can cause gain or loss of appetite so that's up in the air - could also make you plan to eat in but then decide to get take out because you're too depressed to cook. (Source: I've done this as my anxiety/depression has been really bad this year and my wife who's never been depressed is barely functional this year).

I think the biggest thing is just everything's shifting. We're not just dealing with covid-19 but also fires and other natural disasters. Unfortunately, I think climate change could keep this the norm even if covid-19 is completely normalized (i.e. we return to some semblance of normal).

Covid-19 variants could also keep things an issue. I'm going to get flagged for fear-mongering but I don't see how the next decade gets any better than it is right now, except for fleeting relief cycles as we come out of the pandemic ... but there's a lot of shifting global strife.

You can almost feel the change from day to day everything's changing faster and faster and it's getting harder to predict the future. Kind of like the singularity when technology speeds up.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#58

Post by bobitsaboy »

NullPrefix wrote: post #54
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…

>Flour, sugar, etc. were all a real pain to get a hold of I see that as a win. Neither flour nor sugar is essential or healthy.

That's great, they're just two items and a lot of people didn't routinely buy flour (or something like yeast). Meanwhile, everything else has gone up in addition. A number of produce items have increased 25-50% in the last year here.

Gotta love some of the people on HN. Maybe it's just the late night crowd?

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#59

Post by imtringued »

baybal2 wrote: post #22
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 pani…

That aljazeera link doesn't sit right with me.

I mean, just look at that first picture. It's a small child sitting in a sandy place with a stainless steel bowl with porridge like food inside. There is no civilization in sight. Maybe some village houses, which represent the bare minimum shelter needed. So now you get to ask yourself, should I feel pity or should I recognize that this child is not living in an environment that is conductive to escaping poverty? If I do take pity, will people pity me if I do a hike without food and end up starving on some forest path far away from civilization? I somehow doubt they would pity me.

My point is, this problem is fundamentally unsolvable without either bringing civilization to these people or bringing the people to civilization. Taking pity on them doesn't do anything except maybe convince yourself that you did your part.

Fighting against world hunger feels like a worthy goal that is fulfillable but it isn't. You don't solve world hunger by feeding people, you solve it by restructuring society.

Re: Food Prices Are Soaring Faster Than Inflation and Incomes

#60

Post by dbetteridge »

Cederfjard wrote: post #52
nelsonmandela wrote: post #37

Closed borders, no students/backpackers, farmers unprepared to pay minimum wages to Australians is resulting in a lot of produce being plowed back into the ground. I just don't know how this economy keeps rolling. How can farmers meet the payments on their loans? Reading 'The great depression: A diary' and looking at the world today just shocks the hell out of me. We are following it step for step and the crash is go…

Am I interpreting this correctly that there’s a minimum wage that applies to Australians but not foreigners, and farmers thus rely on foreign labor? Edit: In Sweden we have/have had similar situations with temporary immigrants that for example pick berries for exploitative wages, but that’s because there’s no actual minimum wage per se - in the rest of society decent wages are ensured by strong unions (except in area…

More like.

I'll pay you minimum wage, but charge you exorbitant amounts for board and lodging and you have no choice because it's the middle of nowhere.

Or for the extra dodgy types, cash payments below minimum wage because they know international workers are less likely to know their rights and be aware of what the minimum wage is.

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