Food research unit says prices will hit 14-year high in 2022

"U.S. food prices will rise by at least 4.2 percent this year, propelled by high energy and commodity prices," Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Environment Reporting Network. That's according to the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Minnesota. That would be the highest increase since 2008, when prices went up 5.5%. Agriculture Department economists earlier estimated a 3% increase this year, which would make it the third year straight of above-average increases. The average increase is 2.4%; last year's was 3.9%.

Program director Pat Westhoff said that might be a low estimate: "I won’t give you a specific number, but it’s safe to say that if we were creating a new baseline today, we’d almost certainly show a higher rate." Consumer food inflation could have a hard time returning to normal because of higher farm commodity prices and energy prices brought on by the Ukraine war, Abbott reports.