(DailyAnswer.org) – According to a Wall Street Journal analysis, groceries cost almost 40% more than they did in 2019, prompting consumers to get “creative” to deal with the burden of inflation.
The NielsenIQ data cited in the analysis indicated that the costs of everyday foods such as vegetables, meat, and snacks are facing a considerable increase. Graphs showed that a trip to the grocery store that would have cost $100 in 2019 now costs $140 on average. The prices of other goods have risen even higher: the cost of eggs has increased by 60%, and the cost of energy drinks has risen by 80%.
The health crisis in 2020 and the war in Ukraine have both been cited as reasons for rising food costs. The reduction of livestock feed, for example, has impacted America’s factory farms that source much of the country’s meat. Jeremy Horpedahl of the Economist Writing Everyday suggested in November 2023 that, though food costs had gone up, claims they had “doubled” were inaccurate and exaggerated. He also noted that the costs of some foods, such as tomatoes, had actually gone down.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was blamed for the cost of wheat in the U.S., which reached a nine-year high after the impact on exports from Ukraine, which affected wheat supply globally. Vermont resident Sharon Faelten, 74, compared shopping for groceries to foraging during an apocalypse. She said she took note of where chicken was on sale and managed to keep her fridge stocked despite rising costs.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Arizona Kari Lake blamed rising costs on “Bidenomics.” In January 2023, Cindy McCain, the U.S. ambassador to the UN agencies for food and agriculture, laid the blame for the global food crisis solely on Russia. By early 2024, however, food inflation in the world’s wealthiest countries was rising at the lowest rate since before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. President Joe Biden’s administration and some U.S. lawmakers criticized food companies for utilizing tactics such as shrinkflation, which involves the reduction in the size of food products but not their prices.
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