brockm on Nostr: I see a lot of people arguing that food prices are at an all-time high. This is ...
I see a lot of people arguing that food prices are at an all-time high. This is actually manifestly untrue. Even if we look at food commodity prices in nominal price terms -- not even trying to adjust for inflation, looking back at the past 20 years, nominal price levels for wheat, corn and rice peaked around April of 2008, with the price of rice nearly double what it currently is in *nominal* terms right now.
It is simultaneously true, that food prices have risen substantially in the past 3 years. But it's also true, that food commodity prices reached an all-time low in 2017. So the inflation has been very real, and has caused real pain.
But it's also true that even at the peak commodity prices we have seen in foodstuffs in the past two years -- once again, in nominal terms -- in about October of 2022, we did not surpass the peak for food prices in the past two decades.
I know this is a narrative-violation. But it also has the benefit of being true.
It is simultaneously true, that food prices have risen substantially in the past 3 years. But it's also true, that food commodity prices reached an all-time low in 2017. So the inflation has been very real, and has caused real pain.
But it's also true that even at the peak commodity prices we have seen in foodstuffs in the past two years -- once again, in nominal terms -- in about October of 2022, we did not surpass the peak for food prices in the past two decades.
I know this is a narrative-violation. But it also has the benefit of being true.