Why is food inflation so stubbornly high?

From Marketplace, I'm some rebenisher in for David Brancaccio.

Inflation has been cooling across a broad range of categories, but lagging behind is the

price of food.

Specifically, food eaten at home, that is Bureau of Labor Statistics ease for groceries.

They are up 3.6% year-over-year that is higher than overall inflation, the Zalper, July's

consumer price index.

There are lots of causes for more expensive food, climate change, the war on Ukraine,

the protectionist trade policies have all contributed, but a key ingredient is the increasing cost

of the labor behind the food.

Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes has more.

Take the American Classic, P.D. and J. It has 3 main components, peanut butter and jelly,

of course, and bread.

None of those are raw commodities coming straight from farmers' fields.

Chris Barrett is a professor of agricultural and development economics at Cornell.

He says generally, only 15% of the retail price goes to the farmer for the actual peanuts

and grapes and wheat, most goes towards milling and packaging and transporting those things,

and wages for people who do many of those jobs have gone up.

And the good news hidden in that higher grocery bill is that the workers all along the way

are actually getting paid more than inflation.

Still those high bills heard, and consumers of all income levels have adopted strategies

that lower them.

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