The Incredible, Ridiculous Cost of Food. And How They're Getting Away With It.

Not only are prices going up the quality is going down. Buy some chicken at one of the major grocery stores and it's sold by the pound. Chicken is so full of steroids and water after you cook it it shrinks by half in volume. Drug dealers use the same tactics to stretch their products. Same thing with ground beef it's 90% that pink slime stuff. Ice cream is whipped full of air melt it down and you have 1/4 of a container.

I'm disabled and collect disability I get $850 a month from social security. I use to get $190 a month in food stamps now I get $40. They said I made too much money last year.

I can't afford to eat meat my diet consists of mostly dry stuff like ramen noodles and mac and cheese. Any type of meat is a delicacy in my house. I haven't had a steak in 3 years. I'm tempted to start shooting those cute fuzzy animals (squirrels) running around in the yard for meat

I was watching my cousin eat some cheap pizza rolls from the grocery store. They were cheese filled only. I told him the cheese was probably rats milk given the way things are going in this country.

originally posted by: SubTruth

originally posted by: jaffo

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: SubTruth

Out of control, you say? Srly? You got anything to back that up at all? Inflation seems to be damned well controlled right now.

Nah, it's just way more fun to keep saying the sky is falling. Of course let's face it, if the sky was really falling every time someone on ATS said it was going to fall, we'd have been dead a loooooooong time ago, lol.

I am calling it for what it is.........Why are lower wage earners demanding a living wage....HMM.....Inflation.

Although it's a separate issue I will continue to say that if you want a better wage you should get a better job. Minimal skills? Welcome to minimal pay.

originally posted by: jaffo

originally posted by: SubTruth

originally posted by: jaffo

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
a reply to: SubTruth

Out of control, you say? Srly? You got anything to back that up at all? Inflation seems to be damned well controlled right now.

Nah, it's just way more fun to keep saying the sky is falling. Of course let's face it, if the sky was really falling every time someone on ATS said it was going to fall, we'd have been dead a loooooooong time ago, lol.

I am calling it for what it is.........Why are lower wage earners demanding a living wage....HMM.....Inflation.

Although it's a separate issue I will continue to say that if you want a better wage you should get a better job. Minimal skills? Welcome to minimal pay.

My grandfather was at Omaha Beach Normandy in WW2. After the war he moved to Detroit. He had an 8th grade education. He got a job working in the factories. My grandmother came to Detroit from Kentucky. She was born on the kitchen table in a dirt floor shack on a tobacco farm. She worked at a munitions factory and built parts that went on the A bombs that were dropped on Japan. Both retired in the 80's with full pensions and lived the American dream.

In the past 25 years I witnessed everything they fought and worked for be systematically destroyed. First they said we don't need pensions anymore we have 401k's. Then they told us we didn't need unions anymore we take care of our employees.

My family and my friends worked in the same factories my grandparents did. You didn't need much of an education to work in them they would train you and promote from within. Starting around 2003 I saw entire industrial complexes disappear over night. I'm not talking about the burned out factories of the inner city from the 40's. These were middle class high paying jobs. 1/10th of the jobs remain today. Most of them shipped over seas. America use to manufacture and make things now we are a service economy. The American worker can't compete with Chinese slave labor.

Not everyone has the means or the ability to go to collage. I know plenty of young people that would like to go but can't because they're working two jobs just to survive. My cousin was a straight A student in high school he works 2 jobs 1 at Family Dollar the other at Taco Bell. He supports his mother that has cancer. He has to take a bus to and from work. He gets 4 hours sleep a night. When I was his age I was working the factories making $50k a year. He would be too if they still existed. His future like many others has been flushed down the toilet by a system that threw him overboard. For many the American dream is dead.

Why is food so expensive? Because of consolidation. Yes, but why stop there?

Keep the "why?" train going...

Why is it consolidating? Because every failure of government and every exploitation on the behalf of shady mega-corporations is facilitated and enabled by our near-total lack of self-reliance. It is a scientific impossibility to indefinitely maintain a culture that has separated itself from it's food source and its government. Distant monocropping farms and distant consolidated government will inevitably lead to systemic failure. Our hands aren't at the wheel.

Buy locally grown food that is sold by people who know how to grow it sustainably. Grow yourself what you can, trade with your community. Collect rainwater off your roof. Learn to dry, can, hunt, fish. If you don't have time to try these things, why? I imagine there is only a small percentage of people who honestly have 0 minutes to contribute to a more manageable, local system so long as they honestly evaluated what parts of their lifestyle can be discarded because they are sapping their energy/time while simultaneously enabling a broken culture.

It's either we keep the consumption-2+ car family-vapid job-declining health-tech obsessed-unsustainable culture and live with the scientific certainty of disproportional power OR we take back the power with our own production. There has never been a utopian civilization that has successfully married cultural/societal resiliency and an irresponsible public.

Transportation costs play a huge role, but note that food prices did not fall with gas prices during the recent drop.

a reply to: wantsome

All the chicken at my Safeway grcoery store now says "antiobotic free" ... This is the Foster Farms brand.

originally posted by: sprtpilot
Food stamps. 50 million people do not care what groceries cost because they are not paying the bill. So, of course, the food industry wants to soak up all those dollars.
Food stamps are enormously inflationary just as Government backed loans fuel the outrageous tuition inflation.

Of course they care. Wouldn't you if you were hungry and had to squeak by every month?

originally posted by: SlickMcFavorite
Why is food so expensive? Because of consolidation. Yes, but why stop there?

Keep the "why?" train going...

Why is it consolidating? Because every failure of government and every exploitation on the behalf of shady mega-corporations is facilitated and enabled by our near-total lack of self-reliance. It is a scientific impossibility to indefinitely maintain a culture that has separated itself from it's food source and its government. Distant monocropping farms and distant consolidated government will inevitably lead to systemic failure. Our hands aren't at the wheel.

Buy locally grown food that is sold by people who know how to grow it sustainably. Grow yourself what you can, trade with your community. Collect rainwater off your roof. Learn to dry, can, hunt, fish. If you don't have time to try these things, why? I imagine there is only a small percentage of people who honestly have 0 minutes to contribute to a more manageable, local system so long as they honestly evaluated what parts of their lifestyle can be discarded because they are sapping their energy/time while simultaneously enabling a broken culture.

It's either we keep the consumption-2+ car family-vapid job-declining health-tech obsessed-unsustainable culture and live with the scientific certainty of disproportional power OR we take back the power with our own production. There has never been a utopian civilization that has successfully married cultural/societal resiliency and an irresponsible public.

It's also because some people are better businessmen and businesswomen than others. Not every business is run well and not all of them survive the market. The ones that operate the smartest usually rise to the top. And yes, as they do so it gets easier to expand and beat out the competition. That in itself is just the way of the market, to be fair.

a reply to: MRuss

Growing food is the best if you have the time

a reply to: wantsome

If you PM your address, I will send you some steaks.

I really will.

That's the kind of girl I am.

originally posted by: MRuss
a reply to: wantsome

If you PM your address, I will send you some steaks.

I really will.

That's the kind of girl I am.

I don't know if your serious or not but if you are I appreciate the kind gesture. You don't need to do that for me I do get meat from time to time. I buy chicken once in a while and I do a lot of fishing. It all depends on how the fish are biting. That's why it's called fishing and not catching. Sometimes my freezer is full of fish sometimes I go months without. Spring and fall are usually the best times for fish. I just get tired of eating mac and cheese during the droughts.

Most of them have given up.
a reply to: mamabeth

There is still lots of manufacturing going on in America, but most of the work is automated. Watch, "How Things Are Made" and you'll see what I mean. The thousands of workers at your grandpa's factory; they were replaced by computer-controlled machines. All that difficult-to-please union labor ousted by computers.
reply to: wantsome

originally posted by: Parthin96
There is still lots of manufacturing going on in America, but most of the work is automated. Watch, "How Things Are Made" and you'll see what I mean. The thousands of workers at your grandpa's factory; they were replaced by computer-controlled machines. All that difficult-to-please union labor ousted by computers.
reply to: wantsome

I've seen a lot of the automation first hand. I use to with with robots manufacturing car doors and other automotive related stuff. Most of the factories I saw disappear didn't happen from automation it happen because the jobs were shipped to China. One of the jobs I had working in a tool and die shop. We started getting dies in with Chinese writing all over the crates and parts. I asked my boss whats this? "He said it was cheaper to have them made in China and fixed here". Die's cost tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to make in the US. The Chinese would make them for 1/100th of the cost. The dies they made were junk but it was still a lot cheaper just to fix them up. Outsourcing to China put a lot of people out of work in my area. 90% of the trade has moved to China.

a reply to: wantsome

It all depends on how the fish are biting. That's why it's called fishing and not catching.

Ah yes the illusive fish with 1 iq point outsmarting the fisherman....All in all you have to give back for the cycle to continue,sometimes you catch ,sometimes you feed the fish...as for me i mostly feed the fish

Sounds like you are having a tough time...i hope it gets better soon or at least easier

Here in Australia we used to have some of the best and cheapest food in the western world 20 odd years ago...now sadly we pay through the roof for most things,we should be a self sufficient country but our dear leaders have other ideas on that because they are greedy bottom feeders.....

On this topic of food prices... over the past several years I have seen various food item cost rise 30-40% with no apparent reason at all. Makes it affordable to eat these day and eating fast food really isn't a good option either. In the OP it was mentioned that consolidation is a factor and I agree somewhat, but here in the US it seems that half of the top 10 retailer sell food. Kroger for example had $109 billion in sales last year and rank #2 right behind Walmart who also sells food. The cost of every item sold is tightly controlled to squeeze every last penny from the consumer and they rarely have sales to amount to much. Coupons may help curb the costs somewhat, but in general the savings is minimal at best.

If you are fortunate enough to live in rural areas, the cost of food is much cheaper. Your food dollar stretches alot further and you notice the value is significant in all area, especially meat. You can buy 5 various meats for $20 USD
bacon, sausage, hamburger, etc which is a way better deal than you find at the inner city retailer. Cereals and canned good seem to be cheaper as well.

It as almost mentioned the effect of the NWO may be part of the issue, which I personally believe to be true. If anyone has ever seen "Esoteric Agenda"... the theory says the NWO is trying to reduce the population and I have no doubt that CODEX Alimentarius has some impact of the overall price of food. There is a real push to assert control of food directly and indirectly on a global scale and their is little the average consumer can do about it. Every cow on the planet is injected with Monsanto Growth Hormone, GMOs, etc all not good in my opinion. The only real option you have to really cut cost and avoid modified food is to become a farmer and raise your own livestocks and grow you own gardens.

a reply to: wantsome

What a great post about your grandparents lives and how they lived the American dream. I am sorry I am only seeing this now.

Get in touch with me. I'm a writer and I'd like to write about your perspective, about how we've let this country be torn to shreds.

What a powerful example your family brings to this issue.

Great thread OP. Read the whole thing and all complimentary/opposing view points. Many things to research and reflect on.

My wife and I manage to feed a family of 7 on a budgeted 150/week just for food. Whave a seperate 100/month for toiletries and other essentials. I garden heavy; raise fish in aquaponics... Just dressed out 60lbs of tilapia; have chickens for eggs, am going to add quail next spring spring for meat. The boys and I stock up on Squirrel and Rabbit when in season.

The best thing to date has been putting in the front yard veggie garden... Raised beds, rock scaped, manicured fruit trees, curb appeal through the roof. In the span of 1 year from taking the front yard plunge, 4 more neighbors have started small gardens..... I like to think from my influence. We give eggs away, food away, talk to our neighbors more now. I take yard 'waste' from them and return buckets of compost in the spring.

I truly believe the solution is a local counter economy. Having made it a point to drive around my area and note all the visible signs of agriculture.... Backyard chickens, hoop houses, fruit trees, food plots in vacant lots. We border a 'food desert' one one side [low income area] and a small local farm on the other. When one takes the time to look, and to talk, there is good food everywhere!

originally posted by: Dimithae
I am glad that I invested in a vacuum sealer for food.I go to my butcher and I order a 'meat package' and it has about 50 lbs of meat in it. Its about $150. Then I take all the meat and divide it up into meals. If it is going to be hamburgers,I make the patties and season them,then seal it up and put it in my deep freeze. If it is a roast,I season it,seal it and freeze it as well.I'll preprep it for whatever I plan on making out of each piece,then seal it and freeze it. Then I just pull out whatever I need that day and start cooking. It was the only way I could feed 2 people reasonably well for a month or two.

You should find someone that raises cows and go in on 1/4 or 1/2 of one.

Looking at all food prices I see a good drop except for good meat cuts and chicken legs, go figure, so I guess if you stay away from those two you over all cost is lower.

a reply to: tinker9917

You have to be smart with your money in order to stretch your dollar. It's what we do.

We can't make it very well on just $100 like we used to for three of us, but we still manage for about $120/week.

We don't eat much beef - more chicken, pork and fish. We cook in bulk. We don't "consume mass quantities." We taught and teach ourselves how to eat the so-called garbage cuts (the offal and the like; no one eats them so they're cheaper). We learn how to make our own stock and use as much of something as we can to get more bang for our bucks. We shop the sales. We figure out where the local butchers and other similar providers are. We figured out how to use seasonings, vinegars, oils, and yes, alcohol, to our advantage to up the flavor of what we are eating.

It can be done, but it's a battle and an ongoing learning process, and most people don't bother. THey simply hit the Hungry Man aisle in the frozen section.