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How are consumers reacting to higher food prices?
Results of a new poll released by the Center for Food Integrity indicates consumers are coping with the rising cost of food by changing their shopping behaviors.
For example, 37 percent of the respondents are clipping coupons and 32 percent are buying fewer name brand items. Seventeen percent say they are now shopping at discount or warehouse stores in an effort to hold down food costs.
Reacting to the poll results, Iowa State University economics professor Dr. Helen Jensen says it’s clear that rising food prices are increasing the percentage of the consumer’s budget spent on food. She cites Bureau of Labor statistics indicating that food’s share of income has increased from 11 or 12 percent to almost 13 percent.
“The share of our income going to food is very low compared to other countries,” Jensen says, “and we may be facing a change there that it’s no longer going to be quite as low as it used to be.”
Brownfield asked Jensen if she thinks farmers are getting more of the blame for increased food prices than they have in the past.
“It’s not so much blaming farmers as it’s maybe some recognition of the higher priced commodities—corn—being used for energy,” she says. “If there’s blame, I don’t think it’s figuring that the farmers are trying to get at consumers, but a bit of frustration with not fully understanding the source of some of the change in food prices—what’s behind it.”
Jensen says that, coupled with rising fuel prices and higher health care costs, many consumers are now forced to choose less expensive foods.
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