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If you’re like most Americans, you must have noticed that grocery shopping has been growing more expensive with each passing month. Food prices are soaring all across the country, and industry experts are alerting that from now on, it’s only going to get worse. Even the mainstream media is warning that grocery bills will continue to climb for the rest of the year, and when corporate media starts flashing a red light over an issue that was overlooked for months, we know that things are about to get serious. The truth is that U.S. consumers should brace for a widespread shortage of goods and, as a consequence, skyrocketing prices will continue on a meteoric rise as our economy gets ravaged by inflation. And that’s what we’re going to expose in this video.
A new report released on Tuesday by the Labor Department revealed that consumer prices shot higher in March, as trillions in stimulus money started flooding the economy, pushing the consumer price index up 2.6% from the same period a year ago. The main driver of this staggering hike on the consumer price index was the significant increase in gasoline prices, which have surged 9.1% in March, and went up 22.5% from a year ago, part of a 13.2% increase in energy prices.
Higher gasoline prices have increased transport costs and demand continues to outpace oil production, therefore, that rise will be passed on to consumers. Data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicate food price inflation will escalate an additional 3% this year. In 2020, food prices rose 3.9%, almost triple last year’s overall rate of inflation, according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. From now on, “people will have to get used to paying more for food,” that’s what the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, Sylvain Charlebois, told Bloomberg, stressing that “it’s only going to get worse.”
Amongst the main drivers to this meteoric price rise is the plummeting food production. Since the health crisis started, several production and packing plants were completely shut down due to a number of widespread outbreaks caused by crowded working conditions. Even though many processing plants are reopening, owners are having to invest in technology and new operations to keep their workers safe, which includes more automation and equipment that can be operated remotely. And, of course, that additional investment cost will be absorbed by the end consumer.
Moreover, the sanitary outbreak also derailed food distribution, and the recent transportation tumult is adding to the price pressures. The Food and Drug Administration noted the U.S. imports account for 15% of its overall food supply, and estimates show we import roughly 65% of our seafood from international producers. Higher demand and a change of habits are contributing to elevated prices too. After restaurants were forced to close and remote working became more popular amongst American workers, people have begun eating more at home. With millions of families now at home for three meals a day, food consumption in the U.S. has boomed.
A recent article disclosed that 50% of participants in a food consumption survey affirmed they had been buying more food than usual during the health crisis, with 33% admitting to stockpiling it. And as the food supply sinks, there’s really only one direction prices can go. On top of all that, extreme weather has severely disturbed the global supply chain. One simple example of how vulnerable supply chains are at the moment can be seen in the fallout of the recent Texas storms. Farmers were forced to dump roughly 14 million gallons of milk during the crisis, and the state’s farmers and ranchers have lost more than $600 million. When similar events started to occur more frequently and more powerfully, the threat to the U.S. food supply will only grow, and grocery bills will continue to follow that upward trend.
In essence, even in the best of times, the planet was already struggling to feed the entire world population, and we’re headed to even steeper hardships in both food production and distribution. Although the U.S. might still have enough supply for people to stockpile and secure themselves and their families, only those who managed to somehow keep their jobs and maintain some sort of financial stability during the recession will be able to afford such highly inflated prices. It is very unfortunate to admit that food prices may not return to lower levels for years, and things are going to become even more painful as our leaders continue to flood the system with more cash. Dark clouds are emerging on the horizon, and you should get prepared.
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