Dive Brief:
- A list of the 10 foods with the fastest-rising prices reads like an indictment of Mother Nature. Insects, animal diseases, and bad weather are the culprits behind many price hikes.
- According to a list compiled by 24/7 Wall Street, the food with the fastest-growing price in the United States is bacon, which has been hurt by the PED virus. Second on the list is beef, the victim of extreme weather around the globe. And third are oranges, which are under siege by disease and bugs.
- Other foods in the top 10 include coffee, chicken, and peanut butter.
Dive Insight:
Certainly there's lots of bad news in this list for consumers. The price of bacon, for example, has risen 53.3% in four years. But there's good news here too -- it's unlikely that anyone could argue with a straight face that Americans don't already eat enough bacon.
For food producers and sellers, the list is also a bit of a mixed bag. If, for example, there's a farmer out there somewhere trying to grow oranges, raise pigs, and grind coffee, he has our sympathy. On other hand, in the food business every cloud has a silver lining for someone.