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Spikes in meat prices, but not overall food prices

NuVal scores on orange juice at a Hyvee grocery store in Columbia, MO.
Jessica Naudziunas
/
KBIA
NuVal scores on orange juice at a Hyvee grocery store in Columbia, MO.

Food prices are up, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture isn’t forecasting a drastic surge. In spite of price spikes in the meat aisle, grocery prices are not rising any faster than they have historically.

Pork prices are up 12 percent from a year ago as the industry deals with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus, an illness that has killed millions of piglets nationwide. Beef prices are up 10 percent as drought continues to hammer beef states like Texas and Oklahoma.

“The (beef) herds are the size they were in 1951,” said USDA economist Annemarie Kuhns. “With limited supply the prices have increased.”

The jump in meat prices may give the false impression that food costs are going up across the board. But the latest report from the USDA shows that’s not the case. Storewide, prices are only up about 2 percent over the last year.

Kuhns says whether or not you’re noticing price hikes at the supermarket depends a lot on which part of the store you do the most shopping.

“If you’re a person who shops more at the periphery of the store – your meats, dairy, cheese and eggs – then you will be seeing higher than average inflation,” Kuhns said. “But if you’re a person who gets a mix of items along with your center aisle then maybe you’ll be seeing more like that 2.5 to 3 percent level.”

The center aisles usually contain more processed foods, cereals, bread, snacks and sweets. Big corn and soybean crops last year, and similar levels predicted for this fall, have helped hold down prices for those processed items, Kuhns said.

When it comes to forecasting where food prices will head in the next 6-12 months, the big variable is the drought continuing to threaten California farmers. It’s the salad bowl of America. While some studies have predicted big jumps in fruit and vegetable prices, that hasn’t happened – at least not yet.

Harvest Public Media's reporter at NET News, where he started as Morning Edition host in 2008. He joined Harvest Public Media in July 2012. Grant has visited coal plants, dairy farms, horse tracks and hospitals to cover a variety of stories. Before going to Nebraska, Grant studied mass communication as a grad student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and completed his undergrad at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. He grew up on a farm in southwestern Iowa where he listened to public radio in the tractor, but has taken up city life in Lincoln, Neb.
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