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THE REAL REASON YOUR GROCERY BILL IS STILL SO HIGH  
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Sonali Kolhatkar
February 4, 2024
Independent Media Institute
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_ It's not inflation, it's actually corporate greed keeping food
prices high. It’s now time to turn the tables on our food system by
centering justice over profits. _

, Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

 

Americans have had to weather much in the years since the COVID-19
pandemic first began, including price inflation of basic necessities.
Grocery bills, especially, are a drain on household finances. But, as
recent reports show, inflation is easing
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many industries, and yet food prices overall have remained stubbornly
high. Not only is that an indication of a deep rot at the heart of the
food industry, agribusinesses, and corporate grocery chains, but it is
also a clear sign that we need to repair our entire food system.

Reporting on a new Census Bureau survey, USA Today’s Sara
Chernikoff
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that “[t]he average American household spends more than $1,000 per
month on groceries.” And, while it’s not surprising that those
residing in expensive states like California have high grocery bills,
there’s little relief for those living in states with lower costs of
living. An average California family’s weekly grocery bill is
$297.72, but an average North Carolina family’s bill is
$266.23—nearly as high.

Attempting to downplay this reality, Paul Donovan, chief economist of
UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times
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Americans might be overestimating how serious inflation is, feeling
the pinch most especially when they buy something as small as a candy
bar. “[C]onsumers perceive inflation as higher than it actually
is,” wrote Donovan. Further, he claimed, “[h]umans are genetically
programmed to emphasize bad news over good news when they make
decisions.” Donovan is implying that we’re just imagining high
grocery bills.

While corporate executives prioritize THEIR PROFITS over their
customers' best interests…

Senator @Bob_Casey [[link removed]]
is implementing a plan to lower YOUR costs and fight THEIR unfair
price gouging and #greedflation
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pic.twitter.com/c3l3ktyfzu [[link removed]]

— Pennsylvania Indivisible (@pa_indivisible) December 4, 2023
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In fact, inflation in the grocery industry has been higher than in
other industries, rising 25 percent over the past four years compared
to 19 percent overall
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and many have pointed to simple greed
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the reason: food prices are high because the companies setting prices
think they can get away with padding their profits. Since we all have
to eat, naturally this hits lower-income families harder, rather like
a regressive tax. A new report
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the Groundwork Collaborative
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“consumers in the bottom quintile of the income spectrum spent 25
percent of their income on groceries, while those in the highest
quintile spent under 3.5 percent.”

Economists have attempted to explain the reasons for grocery-related
inflation remaining stubbornly high by pointing fingers at supply
chain issues, higher labor costs, and agricultural pests.
The Washington Post
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admitted—albeit with little additional comment—that
“consolidation in the industry gives large chains the ability to
keep prices high.” (I’ll return to this critical point below.)

Fearing that voters feeling the pinch every time they shop for food
will punish him at the ballot box, President Joe Biden has taken aim
at the food industry. At an event in South Carolina on January 27,
2024, the president remarked
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while “inflation is coming down… there are still too many
corporations in America ripping people off: price gouging, junk fees,
greedflation, shrinkflation.”

To be fair, some foods did become cheaper, such as eggs
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Remember the nationwide scramble on eggs
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the early months of the pandemic with many grocery retailers limiting
the number of cartons per customer? But in the years since, prices
leveled off. And then they whisked up again
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In fact, eggs are a far better indicator of why Americans are upset
about food-related inflation than a Snickers bar.

There are plenty of short-term interventions that government can apply
to help American families cope with the high cost of groceries, and
President Biden has implemented many of them. Groundwork
Collaborative’s report
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an increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
benefits for the lowest-income Americans, as well as the federal
government’s initiative in taking food corporations to court over
price gouging, and helping to lower the prices of crop fertilizers.

Joe Biden: “Any corporation that has not brought their prices back
down, even as inflation has come down, even as the supply chains have
been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price gouging,” Biden said.
“Give the American consumer a break.” [link removed]—
EssenViews (@essenviews) February 3, 2024
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But many of these fixes are workarounds to compensate for the massive
monopolistic corporatization of our food industry. Recall the point
that the Washington Post
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with little additional analysis: “consolidation in the industry
gives large chains the ability to keep prices high.” The fact is
that only a handful of corporations
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the majority of our food system. We are all at the mercy of a small
number of big companies. And, unless we make serious systemic changes
to our food systems, we will remain so.

When thinking about longer-term fixes that free our foods from
corporate profiteering, the humble egg is once more a good example.
When eggs were prized items during the early months of the pandemic,
small producers and farmers markets
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the only reliable suppliers for many Americans. I recall being even
more grateful than usual for my membership with the Urban Homestead
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Pasadena, California, where I live. Each week, I place an order with
them for fresh produce and other locally grown foods to supplement my
store-bought groceries. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Urban Homestead
was one of the few sources my family had for eggs and fresh produce.

But such small producers are few and far between. While the lucky ones
among us may have access to urban farms, there are simply not enough
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growers to feed most Americans. Those farms that do exist operate on
razor-thin margins, struggling year after year to remain financially
viable. They remain on the outskirts of a massive capitalist playing
field that is tilted toward profit-centered, highly subsidized
agribusinesses and grocery chains. While small farmers, both urban
and rural [[link removed]], are
struggling, food trading companies are gobbling up massive profits
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And the federal government’s farm subsidy program
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large corporate growers rather than the family farmers they are
ostensibly aimed at.

Localizing our food supplies and shortening the chain between food
buyers (i.e., all of us) and grocery suppliers ought to be the focus
of food-centered government policies. This requires adopting a mindset
based on the idea of “food justice
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has been written. We need to make it easier for small-scale farmers to
grow food while remaining financially stable, and harder for
large-scale corporate agribusinesses to control our food supply. This
requires incentivizing small-scale farmers to remain small and
sustainable—the opposite of the “growth” ideals of corporate
profiteers.

Lawmakers and corporate media outlets are so attached to the idea that
food producers and distributors deserve massive profits in exchange
for controlling our food supply, that a justice-based approach of
de-growth rarely enters their discourse. Rather than the rich eating
us (and our wallets), it’s time for us to eat the rich.

_This article was produced by __Economy for All_
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of the Independent Media Institute._

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* Food Prices; Grocery Chains; Food Justice;
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