In his State of the Union address on Thursday, President Biden is expected to highlight “shrinkflation” and persistently “sticky” high consumer food prices. Food prices increased significantly during the pandemic and remain well above pre-pandemic levels today. Food & Water Watch has produced a new analysis detailing the magnitude of the crisis.

From Jan. 2020 to Jan. 2024, the overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 19.6%. Yet during this period, prices for staple foods increased by much greater rates:

• The cost to feed a family has ballooned: The monthly food cost for a family of four on a “thrifty food plan” increased 50% from $654.10 to $975.90
• Beef: +29.3% for ground beef and +24.2% for ground chuck
• Poultry: +41% for whole chicken
• Milk & Eggs: +21.7% for a gallon of whole milk and +72.6% for a dozen Grade A eggs

More recently, from Jan. 2023 to Jan. 2024, the overall CPI increased 3.1%, yet corporations maintained inflated “sticky” prices across many staples, including:

• Beef: +5% for ground beef and +9.7% for ground chuck
• Poultry: +7.1% for whole chicken 

Meanwhile, the past four years have brought significant revenue increases to grocery and agribusiness giants. The top four grocery retailers in the U.S. saw revenue increases between 9-36% over this period. Poultry giants Tysons Foods and Perdue saw revenue increases of 22.5% and 54.9%, respectively. In the past year alone, Perdue revenue increased 37.5%.

Food & Water Watch Research Director Amanda Starbuck issued the following statement:

“Consumers are getting ripped off in the grocery aisle. While families struggle to put food on the table, agribusiness and grocery giants are raking in billions. President Biden’s administration has taken critical steps to increase food and ag sector competition and bring prices down for American families. But this is only the beginning — Biden must move quickly to finalize the open Packers & Stockyards Act rulemaking, and break up food monopolies.”

For more, see Food & Water Watch research into the economic cost of food monopolies in the grocery, hog and dairy industries.

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