Food Inflation (click on the link and watch a Business Week video explaining causes of food inflation in a pop up).

Been to the grocery store yet this week?

It made me nostalgic for last week. . . last month . . . last year.

The price of wheat has gone up 80-something percent and now retailers are reporting difficulty finding it. There is a world wide food inflation and food shortage. Asia’s got a rice crisis and we’ve redirected part of our corn crop to make fuel.

Over the past 12 months milk prices have doubled as demand for corn, the staple diet of a dairy herd, increased substantially, reports The Times.

The Economist says,

“Over the past 30 years the share of food in American and European household spending has fallen from an average of 30% to less than 10%, so consumers do not care about price hikes as much as they did in the past. Even so, they are responding to the economic gloom by changing what they eat, where they eat and where they buy their groceries.”

Most news sources seem to have the same message - if you think your grocery bill is high now, come back next week when it’s sure to be higher.

I’m a recent convert to the word organic.

I’d recently started springing for the extra change to buy the organic carrots, peanut butter, milk and this or that.

But, Friday I realized we’re not talking about change anymore. I’d stop at one item and realize the difference between high fructose corn syrup cheap food and the organic version is about $2. Organic honey and peanut butter and rice, the difference of around $2.

It’s just not possible for us to face this world-wide food inflation crisis adding $2 or more to every item in my cart.

I lost about 25 pounds last year from switching my carbs via Bob Green and Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Whole wheat breads, noodles, even pizza dough and some chips. My whole family lost weight as a result.

I bought it this week, but it’s predicted by the end of the year I’ll either not be able to find it or afford it.

Are we facing the choice fat and unhealthy or broke?

I’m sorry body and planet, environmentalist and health nut, we’ve got to risk fat and unhealthy over broke.

I’ll hold onto the reverse-osmosis water, the hormone free organic milk, but little else with an organic price tag made it into my cart.

In the last few weeks I’ve bought a bread maker and an air pop corn popper at a thrift store, planted some strawberries, tomatoes and herbs, and started cooking more things from scratch.

The kicker - I STILL had to put stuff back to stay on my $150 per week budget.

My Mormon relatives, firm believers in food storage “just in case,” are sending me cautionary email instructions to stock up on things like flour and grains. Quick!

It’s probably not the end of the world and American’s are blessed in that we likely won’t actually starve, but smart people insulate themselves from inflation.

“The surge in the price of food will continue for at least a further two years, the chief executive of one of the world’s biggest food companies, Pepsico, has told “The Times.

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