Why Food Is Getting More Expensive In The U.S.

The pandemic sent food prices skyrocketing amid a slew of supply chain disruptions, but food costs have been steadily rising over the past five years. The rise in prices can have serious consequences for the most vulnerable Americans. According to the USDA, 13.8 million Americans qualified as food insecure in 2020. Watch the video to find out how much food prices have risen, what's driving the increase and how businesses and policymakers can fix it.

The Biden administration said Wednesday it plans to take “bold action” to enforce antitrust laws aimed at meatpacking companies it says are causing beef, pork, and poultry prices to rise at the grocery store.

Even though beef prices have been rising, farmers and ranchers have been making less money, the White House said.

Climate change, labor issues, transportation concerns and other supply chain disruptions have been contributing to the rising costs over the past several years. The pandemic disruptions then sped up the rate of growth in prices.

These price increases have significant consequences for the most vulnerable Americans. The United States Department of Agriculture reported Wednesday that 13.8 million households were considered food insecure in 2020.

The Biden administration last month increased assistance for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. Previously known as Food Stamps, the benefits were increased by more than 25%.

0:00 - Introduction
01:31 - Rising costs
03:41 - Climate change
04:44 - Supply chain issues
08:33 - Health impact
11:55 - Solutions

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online

#CNBC

Why Food Is Getting More Expensive In The U.S.

[lastempire]

The term "Food Scarsity" coming from a nation who wasted millions tons of food each month is what I call an irony.

[barttfisher]

The stock market is already a wild ride, but now inflation adds another layer of crazy. One minute my portfolio is soaring, the next it's dropping like a rock. Makes it tough to plan for the future when the ground keeps shifting under my feet.

[DarHalen]

Hell, the US grocery stores throw away perfectly good food everyday... Enough food to feed half our population. But it's not profitable to give it to the impoverished. That needs to change.

[floglo]

In terms of "being smarter" about buying food, what planet are these people on? Who among us on a tight food budget, does not already regularly shop by 'per unit' costs, store brands, frozen alternatives to fresh and buying what's on sale? And they forgot to mention shopping at outlets, food warehouses, farmers markets and other cheaper alternatives to standard grocery stores -if we have access to them. That's where they would find us (if they descended their ivory towers)... comparing labels and doing the math over by the sale shelves.

[vidsbyme]

Heaven forbid the stockholders or CEOs actually take a pay cut. They never mention that as a 3rd possibility.

[PhilipMurray]

Inflation begins when dollars are printed. Printed dollars are a data input to the CPI. The CPI print is the feedback loop from printed dollars. Keynesians have been trying for decades to print dollars to create inflation-used as a signal to show the stimulus is working. Then before inflation gets entrenched, deflate by destroying printed dollars. The problem here is the Fed didn’t remove the dollars it printed to stimulate. So the higher prices are here to stay for a while. The dollar strength is transitory. You will see a weak dollar once those bonds the fed has on its balance sheet become difficult to sell as higher yielding assets will be more desirable to investors.

[sourishsaha]

Meanwhile government-"Inflation isn't something to be worried of. We can keep printing money"

[rsmith]

After a generation of aquiring useless college degrees, and crapping on non degree trades, we have a labor shortage ? We have to pay people fairly to do the jobs beneath us ? Who could have seen this coming ?

[fusionreaper]

We need to somehow save the food that stores throw out by having it be bought for a much lower cost or given away to shelters so it doesn't go to waste

[veganpotterthevegan]

Our food his been artificially deflated for decades. The sad thing is that these higher prices aren't leading to fair pay for farmers. And US minimum wage hasn't budged

[Nullzeros]

Just what you want to hear, rising food prices and wages that haven’t largely changed in several decades.

[GuitarsRgood]

For a while I thought I was going crazy when I noticed the size of food decreasing. I thought it was because I was older, things seemed smaller.

[Silver_]

You spent 15 minutes talking about rising food prices and didn't mention the federal reserve once.

[noblebrown]

So we aren’t even going to talk about food waste/ & super retailers buying up all the major produce/meat and wasting it ?

[dawnbolton]

We all need to go back to growing some of our own food in our own yard. Farmers do not receive enough respect and appreciation for all that they do for us all.

[js.goldklang]

We should be planting staple tree crops like chestnuts in our communities. We need to shift to a tree and perennial based food system that is based locally and is decentralized

[SirSubzero]

So let me get this, poor get government help, the rich have more now and can afford anything, well we will just screw the lower middle class with higher cost of food. Sounds legit, screw the middle class who needs them anyways.

[agreedboarart]

Instead of handing out the food to the needy when it's close to spoiling, they choose to throw it away, and we're paying the price.

[jordanmcdonald]

They say they "drive less" my younger brother quit his job because he nearly got ran into the ground. Rules of how much he could drive didn't concern his employers

[philsipad]

I still remember a Pound Cake actually weighted a pound and cost $1.99.