Consumers are feeling the inflationary pressures, and rising prices on common household items have become a central issue in the upcoming election, with Bidenomics being blamed by Republicans for sapping Americans’ paychecks.
According to a study done by The Wall Street Journal, shoppers are spending $137 for the same cart of groceries they could buy in 2019 for $100. From 2019 to 2023, the Consumer Price Index for food products rose 25% according to the USDA. In 2022, U.S. consumers, businesses, and government entities spent $2.39 trillion on food and beverages in grocery stores and at other retailers.
Item | 2019 | 2024 |
Eggs (per dozen) | $1.99 | $3.84 |
Milk (per gallon) | $2.73 | $3.87 |
Butter | $3.78 | $4.74 |
Peanut Butter | $3.48 | $4.52 |
Cereal | $3.36 | $4.50 |
Ground Chuck Beef (per lb) | $3.78 | $5.28 |
Toilet Paper | $7.08 | $9.75 |
Laundry Detergent | $7.83 | $10.66 |
Strawberry Jam | $2.97 | $4.09 |
Frozen Pizza | $3.77 | $5.15 |
Potato Chips | $2.26 | $3.23 |
When you look at these numbers, it is easy to conclude that the farmers are making large profits, but the USDA shows that retail food prices are less volatile than farm prices.
Corn, wheat, and soybeans are the top three U.S. field crops and comprise the majority of field crop inputs to the U.S. food supply. The average farm price of these crops, weighted by total production, regularly rises or falls by more than 10% from one year to the next. However, these price swings have relatively small impacts on food prices. In 2022, the production-weighted price of these crops increased by 83%, while food prices increased by 10%. Intermediate foods and feed price fluctuations generally range between swings in field crop and food prices.
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