Touch the Soil News #2007 (photo – FAO Logo – (Public Domain – United Nations Food And Agriculture Organization)
The Food and Agriculture Organization published its updated Food Price Index for September 2023. The results are essentially flat, with the index at 121.5 a hair lower than August at 121.6. For perspective, the Food Price index from 2015 through 2020 was under 100. By 2022 it had spiked at 143.7.
The Food Price index is based upon commodity prices, not retail prices that we would see in the grocery store. The five commodity groups the Food Price Index follows are meat, dairy, cereals, vegetable oils and sugar. When these commodities spike, it is folks eating at the lowest level of the food chain, harvesting and preparing food directly from the grains themselves.
For a U.S. perspective, the USDA reports (2021) that the farmer receives approximately 14.5 cents per dollar spent on domestically produced food. You can access the Food Price Index Report here:
