Let's talk about why your food prices are going up.... - Belle of the Ranch

[TexasTowelie]

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about your food prices going up.

Okay, so farmers are sounding the alarm. They're being hit by a convergence of different factors that are setting things up for you to see higher prices on the shelves. There are some that are widely being covered right now and some that aren't. There are enough major disruptions occurring that the new major disruptions are overshadowing the previous major disruptions. Let's start with the most recent ones.

The one currently all over the news is fertilizer. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz for an extended period disrupted the flow of fertilizer. About a third of all shipborne fertilizer sails through the strait. That raised prices. A recent Farm Bureau survey suggests that 70% of America's farmers are saying they can't afford all the fertilizer they need. If they don't get the fertilizer, they're likely to have lower crop yields. Lower crop yields means less food. Less food with the same demand means higher prices on the shelves. This is especially true because the problem isn't limited to the US. Everybody all over the world needs food, so they need fertilizer.

Diesel is another issue hitting farmers. Diesel is widely used in farm trucks and tractors. Around mid-April, diesel was averaging about $5.53 a gallon. The year before, $3.57. When operating costs go up, prices tend to follow. And that's just on the farm. The trucks transporting the food to processors and eventually to the markets are also mostly running on diesel. All of this provides upward price pressure.

Both of those are directly the result of Trump's ill-advised elective war on Iran. But they aren't the only issues contributing to the upward pressure.

We also have tariffs. The cost of Trump's tariffs get passed on to the American purchaser. That's bad enough. But then the tariffs sparked trade wars that disrupted markets for America's farmers. and some were rethinking production strategies before the Iran war ever started.

Manpower. There's also manpower issues hitting America's farmers. Some of those are linked to Trump's immigration policies.

These four factors are coming together to create a swell of upward price pressure on groceries of all kinds. These same issues also hit ranchers in some ways. Trump campaigned on lowering your food bill, or as he put it, “an old-fashioned term that we use, groceries. I used it on the campaign. It's such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term, groceries. It says a bag with different things in it.”

Indeed, a bag with different things in it. Well, thanks to his reckless policies, that bag is going to cost you a lot more.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.

[2naSalit]

1. It seems like...

Those project 2025 assholes saw that causing Iran to close the strait was the most expedient way to fuck up the world and decided that they would go that route expressly for that purpose. They want to kill the US.

[multigraincracker]

2. Cabbage, rice and beans.

Get use to it.