The soaring cost of food won’t be declining anytime soon, driven by increased production costs, extreme weather conditions, and disease, industry executives have warned.
Food inflation in August rose 12.4 percent year-over-year, marking the biggest hike since February 1979, according to government data.
Meanwhile, the food at home index, or food at grocery stores, rose 13.5 percent over the last 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending March 1979.
In January 2021 when President Joe Biden took office, annual food inflation was at 3.8 percent.
While American consumers may see retail prices stabilize overall, they likely won’t see prices drop in the near future as producers are forking out more for labor and packaging materials while battling droughts, flooding, and diseases like avian flu, which have impacted crops and killed egg-laying hens….