First if was some stuff about Bird Flu and the price of eggs shot up by 50+%…..then Donny imposed his tariffs and everything became more and more expensive….first it was the prices for meat….
Of course I felt obligated to pass on what I had read about this rise….
So like any other normal person I decided to supplement my smaller meat portions with veggies…..now that is not going to happen….
Wholesale food prices rose 1.4% from June to July, with one big subsector leading the way: fresh and dry vegetables, which surged 38.9% in that same time period, per the AP. That’s the largest month-on-month spike for veggies since March 2022, as well as the biggest increase in a summer month since record-keeping for this data started after World War II, reports Axios, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The outlet notes that these wholesale stats could portend a jump in prices soon at the supermarket as well.
So how much does this “veggie-flation” have to do with the Trump administration’s ongoing global trade war? “Because we get most of that produce across the border, and they’re imports, the tariffs have a lot to do with that,” Phil Kafarakis, CEO of IFMA The Food Away From Home Association, tells Axios. “Over a third of our vegetables are imported,” agrees Michigan State University food economist David Ortega, who tells Marketplace that items like tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, and asparagus are especially susceptible to higher tariffs.
Kafarakis, meanwhile, tells Axios that things could even get worse in the fall, when harvest season begins, with a possible decline in farm workers to gather that produce amid Trump’s accompanying immigration crackdown. “Getting into October, the quality and then the capacity of what we’re able to bring in is going to be a real, real problem,” he notes. “Prices will soar to keep demand in check.”
I guess that means if I want to get more healthy food I will be eating more fruit….that is wrong as well for a lot of our fruit comes through import and that means higher prices for this as well….
Since produce is getting more expensive does that mean vegans will be paying through nose more so than us god awful meat eaters?
Thoughts?
Finally a short economics lesson…..just a look at how much we spend on groceries….
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) July 2025 food plans, a moderate-to-liberal-cost grocery plan for a single adult ranges from roughly $300 to $450 per month, depending on age and gender. For a family of four, following a moderate-cost USDA food plan, monthly grocery spending would rise to around $1,337.60, depending on the ages of the children — a 3.4% increase from $1,293 in the same month in 2023. Even the low-cost (thrifty) plan would cost a family of four $994 a month.
Using the USDA’s food plan as a guide, a single adult, earning the national median monthly income of $5,175, should plan on spending roughly 7-9% of their income on groceries. Meanwhile a family of four earning the national median household income, which was $80,610 via the Census Bureau’s 2024 report, should plan on spending as much as 20% of their income on food every month. However, while these USDA figures offer a structured benchmark, they’re ultimately falling short of what most people are actually spending. The BLS has found that the average American is spending $504 on groceries monthly, but the USDA suggests that a single adult should be spending $400 instead — a 22% difference. Even worse, this is before factoring in things like regional price differences, dietary needs, bad grocery shopping strategies, and food waste.
Read More: https://www.moneydigest.com/1938236/how-much-money-average-american-spends-on-groceries-per-month/
And this is far from over…..who would have thought that in this land of abundance eating could become a luxury?
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“lego ergo scribo”