To the Editor:
From the pandemic to this year, food prices have surged. In my opinion, it is a mix of supply and demand, the pandemic and other global events. After the pandemic’s onset, there was a significant decrease in dining out and people started stockpiling groceries. Due to infected employees, it became harder to staff stores, meat processing plants, and warehouses, raising the costs of doing business. Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increasing the costs of commodities-grains, vegetables and oils, etc. It also raised the costs of producing and transporting food products. Then there is the avian flu and droughts further straining food supplies. Add to this, food corporations have been raking in huge, huge profits-they have not lowered food prices and food corporations’ mergers have decreased competition disincentivizing price competition. Then there is the devious shrink inflation-less product but at the same price. Trump’s policies of huge tariffs and mass deportation will only worsen the problems. Tariffs are ultimately paid by the consumer (the invisible tax) and generally by the middle and lower income consumers. Mass deportation – who do you think works in meat processing plants and agriculture? Prove me wrong.
Dorothy Stephens-Duncan
Village of St. Charles
