Editor’s Note
Recent data indicates a sharp rise in food prices, with wholesale vegetable costs surging nearly 40% last month—the highest increase in three years. This article examines how tariffs are contributing to these inflationary pressures, affecting both producers and consumers.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows food prices have spiked by 2.9 percent since last July, and wholesale prices on fresh and dry vegetables increased by nearly 40 percent last month — the biggest increase in the last three years. And rising prices are likely to continue. Why? Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Producers are already seeing rising costs. The Labor Department’s producer price index, a measure of inflation on wholesale goods and producer costs, increased by nearly one percentage point from June to July. Wholesale prices are up by 3.3 percent over last July. These numbers were significantly higher than economists predicted.
According to the Consumer Price Index, prices for consumers have already risen on several foods. Prices have increased by 5.8 percent on meat, 3.1 percent on poultry, 16.4 percent on eggs, and 14.5 percent on coffee.
Prices will likely increase on other foods as well. While for now, it seems some companies are eating the cost of tariffs, they won’t be able to hold off forever on pushing those rising costs to consumers.
These rising prices will not just be limited to foods. Home electronic prices, for example, rose 5 percent in July as compared to June. Core consumer prices overall increased from 2.9 percent in June to 3.1 percent in July, far above the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2 percent.
Trump has also fired the head of the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces the Consumer Price Index because he didn’t like the July jobs numbers, potentially putting into question future reports by the bureau.
As wholesale and consumer prices have risen, so has the demand on food banks, which were already hit hard with shortages due to federal budget cuts earlier this year and actions at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The “One Big Beautiful Bill” congressional Republicans passed last month also cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by $186 billion, meaning more people may be turning to increasingly strapped food banks to make up for the loss in food assistance.