The Price of Soup

The stock market is up. Unemployment is down. The groundhog did not see his shadow, so spring is on its way. (I had to look that up, because I can never remember if the shadow is a good thing or not). The state of Ohio now has money in its rainy day fund, and the economy is looking up. So life is good, right?

Yes, it is, at least until I go to the supermarket.  What’s up with food prices? I started a large pot of vegetable soup this week with some carrots, celery, cabbage, potatoes, onions, and a bit of leftover chicken and beef. I needed to run to the store for some cans of tomatoes, beans, corn and peas, and I nearly had what my mom would call a conniption fit (anger or panic expressed verbally, loudly and with overt bodily gestures).  Do you know that the brand-name vegetables were over $1 per can? That’s highway robbery! By the time I added in a fresh-baked loaf of crusty bread, that trip to the store cost me nearly fifteen bucks, and I even bought some generic veggies – all for a pot of soup!

Just the week before I’d been whining about how expensive the ready-to-eat soup was, as in the kind with the pop-top lid that gets heated in the microwave. How could a can of soup cost more than $2.00?  I am going broke at the grocery store, and I don’t even have ravenous teen-agers at home any longer. I remember going to the store with a quarter for a loaf of bread. OK, so that was nearly 50 years ago, but I also remember going to the supermarket and paying a quarter for a bag of chips within the last year. Those same chips are now $.50 each, and I paid nearly $1.00 for a Delicious apple last week.  Is it just my imagination, or are we seeing an inflationary rise in the most basic of consumer goods – food?

Turning to the Internet, my source of choice for the scoop on just about any subject, I discovered quite a bit about what experts thought would happen to food prices both nationally and around the world.  The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) tells me that in 2012, there was a 1.8% increase in food prices, and their ERS (Economic Research Service) has issued their inflation forecast for both all food and food-at-home (grocery store) prices in 2013 – it will be a 3-4% increase. Blame it on last summer’s drought, higher feed prices, global warming or the demise of Hostess Twinkies, it looks like we haven’t seen the end of rising prices.

It wasn’t just the USDA that had an opinion on this. I discovered that the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations had a number of talking points about the geopolitics of food scarcity.  I found Oxfam’s words to be dire: “Millions of the world’s poorest people will face devastation from today’s rocketing food prices because the global food system is fatally flawed and policy-makers can’t find the courage to fix it.” And I’m complaining about the cost of a can of soup?

No wonder the enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly known as food stamps) is continuing to rise, and emergency food pantry usage is going through the roof. Right here in our town, and around the country.

I do clip coupons, look for sales, and purchase some generic items, but those measures can only go so far. And while I do plan to plant a larger garden this summer (hopefully with better success), canning is not on my agenda. How much farther can we stretch a dollar?

Are there any bright spots on the food front? Since I’m a “count your many blessings” kind of person, I’m glad to report that when Larry and I go to see the awesome Ashland University women’s basketball team (can you spell UNDEFEATED?), my older husband gets into the games for the senior citizen rate of $3.00, leaving us enough money in our entertainment budget to share a popcorn. Who knows – maybe this week he’ll even spring for a hotdog!