US (Washington Insider Magazine)-Americans are seeing the effects of inflation everywhere in their daily lives, perhaps most notably in higher food prices nationwide. Food isn’t the only thing getting more expensive, though.
According to the Consumer Price Index, the price of real estate, electronics, and gasoline has seen significant increases in prices, which is the primary indicator of monthly price fluctuations of consumer goods.
The price of food in grocery stores and restaurant chains throughout the United States and abroad is having widespread consequences, especially for the lower and middle classes. This isn’t the first time economic instability has affected American food security, as the early days of the pandemic saw restaurant chains closing down, heavily decreasing the demand for most food products.
Now that the restaurant industry is recovering, we’re seeing the demand for fresh food like chicken increase. However, the supply of chicken products wasn’t able to keep up with the demand over the past year due to the worst bird flu outbreak in US history. This constant inconsistency along all areas of the chain is causing intense emotional and financial stress for Americans nationwide.
Animal illness and outbreaks continue to add additional strain, resulting in higher prices for certain goods. For example, bird flu outbreaks caused companies like Domino’s to decrease the number of chicken wings in their orders to account for the increase in food prices (also known as “shrinkflation”).
However, the avian flu outbreaks and other animal-related diseases are starting to subside, and farmers are slowly replacing their flocks with healthy, egg-laying birds and farm creatures.
Egg prices also saw a major increase due to the avian flu, but the prices started to fall back to normal as of August 2022. One dozen eggs cost about $2.16, marking a decrease of over 35 percent since July.
The food inflation epidemic is not just taking place in the United States. One notable country is Japan, where Pizza Hut began making pizzas with rice due to price hikes in the price of wheat.
Economists attributed the increase in wheat prices around the globe to the Russia-Ukraine conflict that shut down wheat supply from Ukraine– one of the largest wheat exporters in the world.
Experts predict additional consequences of price hikes in the coming months. Economists predict rising food prices across the nation as unmanaged economic inflation continues to ravage the middle and lower classes.
