Why Are Iowans Paying More At The Grocery Store?
Just hours before Biden made his Iowa visit, the U.S. was hit with disappointing news- inflation has his a 40-year high at 8.5 percent.
Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says while she is disappointed by the inflation announcement, she isn’t surprised. We have been seeing inflation impact many aspects of Iowans’ lives.
The cost of chicken is up 15 percent, ham 14 percent, butter 14 percent, milk 13 percent, eggs 11 percent, coffee 11 percent, baby food 10 percent. Pork is up 15percent, bacon- which we go through a lot of in our house- 18 percent. Hotel sales are up 29 percent used vehicles are up 35 percent and gas are up 48 percent. So, some big increases there.
And as we watch prices increase, we are not seeing wages increase.
We're hearing from folks who are on fixed incomes who have year over year, you know several $100 increases in their cost with not that income increase to match.
Current events aren’t helping lower these prices. Chad Hart, Iowa State University Ag Economist says that egg prices have been hit hard by avian influenza.
To feel that in terms of not only lost egg production but also, especially in egg prices. We've seen egg prices at the producer level basically double over the past couple of weeks. Those higher producer prices are starting to translate into higher egg prices that we see at the grocery store because when you think about the egg industry, it doesn't take that long to go from the chicken laying the egg till you're buying that egg in the grocery store.
But he says when it comes to poultry meat, avian influenza isn’t affecting prices yet.
It would take a bit longer because when you think about raising those turkeys and then processing the breasts and the meat that we buy at the grocery store, there you're talking about a couple of months before we would see the pricing impacts there.
As prices keep rising, people are continuing to look for solutions to lessen the stress American families have been facing. This ranges from Biden’s E15 announcement to the hearing with meatpackers.