food

Smaller Packages, Less Quantity Hides Food Inflation

by Mark on March 30, 2011 8:21 am · 3 comments

The New York Times calls out the sellers of packaged foods for the con game they are playing with consumers. If you are an astute shopper you’ve already noticed what’s going on at the market — companies are putting less and less food in packages, and keeping the prices the same (or raising them).

If you eat, and I think you do, it’s an interesting story on food inflation.

Chips are disappearing from bags, candy from boxes and vegetables from cans.George Boyle | Stockbyte | Getty ImagesAs an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages.With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to camouflage price increases by selling their products in tiny and tinier packages. So far, the changes are most visible at the grocery store, where shoppers are paying the same amount, but getting less.

Source: NY Times via CNBC.

{ 3 comments }

Food Prices In 2015

by Mark on March 29, 2011 7:17 am · Comments/Link

Minyanville wrote a piece on Bill Lapp’s predictions for the price of food in 2015. Lapp is president of Advanced Economic Solutions, a consulting firm in Omaha, Nebraska, and the former chief economist for ConAgra Foods (CAG), on the future price of food.

In the last nine months, he says, the prices of corn and wheat have doubled; the price of corn alone (nearly $7 a bushel) is three times higher than the previous norm. Lapp estimates that the higher prices for these commodities — for the grains we eat and those used to feed livestock — amounts to some $40 billion in costs not yet passed on to the consumer. But the higher price tags are coming “sooner rather than later,” says Lapp. He calls it a “big liability in front of us.”

The article provides the details, but here is a summary of prices in 2015:

Loaf of bread: $2.16
Gallon of milk: $4.00
Ground Beef: $5 a pound
Boneless Chicken Breast: $4.37 a pound ($9.50 in New York)
Fruit: just 1-5% increase per year overall
Margarine: $1.50 a stick
Average 6-pack: $6.35 ($8.76 for Bud in New York).

Source: Minyanville.com.

{ 0 comments }

Are the Food Police Coming to Your Town?

by Mark on March 23, 2011 14:01 pm · 1 comment

Local government officials around the country are playing “food police” and are on the march to restrict your meal choices (in the name of expanding choice), whether it’s New York’s salt assault, San Francisco’s frown at Happy Meals or, most recently, South LA’s all-out ban on new fast-food restaurants. Coming to a town near you.

{ 1 comment }

Inflation Rage Hits America: Taco Bell Customer Angry Over Burrito Price Fires at Police

by Mark on March 21, 2011 13:11 pm · Comments/Link

At the heart of the original uprisings in the Middle East is the cost of food. It had become so expensive that people rioted in the streets in protest. Now, inflation is firing up Americans as well. In this case, a 50% increase in the price of a Taco Bell Beefy Crunch Burrito was enough to drive a man insane.

Police say a San Antonio Taco Bell customer enraged that the seven burritos he ordered had gone up in price fired an air gun at an employee and later fired an assault rifle at officers before barricading himself into a hotel room.

San Antonio police Sgt. Chris Benavides says officers used tear gas Sunday night to force the man from the hotel room after a three-hour standoff. The man is charged with three counts of attempted capital murder. Authorities have not released his name.

Brian Tillerson, a manager at the Taco Bell/KFC restaurant, told the San Antonio Express-News that the man was angry the Beefy Crunch Burrito had gone from 99 cents to $1.49 each.

It’s a good thing he doesn’t shop for organic goods where my wife does.

Source WNYT.com.

{ 0 comments }

Steep rise in food and gas, but no worries…inflation tame

by Mark on March 16, 2011 7:34 am · Comments/Link

From an Associated Press story this morning:

Higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in nearly four decades drove wholesale prices up last month by the most in nearly two years.

That doesn’t sound good! Continuing…

Excluding those categories, inflation was tame.

Oh, now I feel better.

{ 0 comments }

Is Unrest Across the Middle East and Africa the Fault of Washington, Wall Street and the China?

by Mark on February 8, 2011 9:41 am · Comments/Link

The Federal Reserve insists there is no inflation yet, while the public sees escalating prices everywhere we look, particularly in food and energy. If you think it’s bad in the United States though, try to fathom using up to 80% of your wages to purchase increasingly expensive food as they do in Egypt. Poorer countries around the world are literally rioting in protest of food shortages and prices out of control. Further unrest in these unstable countries can have unfavorable geopolitical consequences for us.

Whose fault is this? Washington, Wall Street and China.

Dylan Ratigan and Bill Fleckenstein got together on MSNBC last week to discuss this, and the Fed’s agenda.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }