Youth Politics

The cost of food is going up, and this is a fact. Will it be permanent? I’m inclined to say yes, but we’ll have to see what happens within the next few months. McDonald’s is changing it’s dollar menu for one thing, and other companies such as Pepsi Co. are slightly decreasing the amount of product as their way to save money, rather than raise prices. One could argue if this is actually fair to the consumer, but companies do have to find a way to stay in business, or the situation in America would be much, much worse. So then, how could I say that the rising cost of food is good?

For one thing, rises in the cost of food benefits farmers. Farmers can take advantage of the increased profit margin by planting more crops. I realize this is not true throughout the world. Today on the radio I heard a discussion about how most Honduran farmers, the ones with small farms, can’t seem to rake in the benefits of rising food prices because the cost of fertilizers and such are too high. They aren’t comfortable growing more crops because they are not sure it will sell. There are organizations helping these farmers to sell their product, but it will take time. In any case, there are still plenty of other farmers who are willing to grow more to increase profits, and because America exports plenty of food, our economy should reap in plenty of benefits, at least from that sector.

Something else rising food prices is doing, as I’ve mentioned, is reducing portions of food on the shelves, and making eating out all the more expensive. This is more of a good thing for America than for anyone else because it helps to combat obesity. America’s portions are, let’s face it, enormous. It’s too easy to overeat in this country, and that’s partially due to the fact that people want the most bang for their buck. A double cheeseburger for a buck? That’s a good deal. But what if that double cheeseburger starts to cost $1.30, $1.60, $2.00? With that kind of a price increase, people will begin to find more value in simply eating at home. Some people don’t have the time to eat at home, you say. That’s fine, because the rising cost of foods will ultimately have people spend less out in restaurants. Soups and salads generally cost less than everything else on most menus these days, and I can see more and more people saving money that way. Once customers begin to lose interest in the other menu items, these restaurants will have to start lowering their prices, and I see no better way to do that than by offering smaller portions.

Jerry’s Subs and Pizza, a popular fast food chain where I live, increased their price of their five dollar pizza special on Mondays to six dollars a few months ago. Monetarily, it’s only an extra buck. Big deal. Six dollars for a whole pizza still seems pretty good. However, the psychological impact is much more profound. Five dollars is a nice, even number. When people think of five dollars, they think of a singular green bill with which to pay it. Six dollars? That’s two pieces of paper money, at least. Or, it means paying with a ten. Yes you get change back, but the whole thought of needing a ten dollar bill to pay for the pizza makes it far less appealing to people. I know I cringe a lot more when I use a ten dollar bill as opposed to a five, even if I know I’m getting change back. The Monday special isn’t too popular anyway, so it’s not really a big deal. But still, people don’t like seeing their products go up in price. It has the impact of driving away customers. Had Jerry’s instead opted to cut their portions down a little, people would have made less of a fuss, in my opinion.

Is it ethical to lessen the portions in food products without announcing it to the consumer? It’s certain legal; as long as the packaging reflects the new net amount of product inside, I see no problem with this tactic. It is the consumer’s responsibility to look at the labels and to see how much product they are truly buying. Americans don’t check how much they are truly buying and largely ignore the labels. I think it’s a bad habit that needs to be broken, and we don’t need to be spoon feeding information to the public. It sets a bad example to society by encouraging lower expectations of its members.

With the increase in the cost of food, one could assume that the cost of healthier foods will go up as well. And yes, they will as well go up. In general, healthier food options have generally been more expensive than their fast food counterparts. In many cases the healthier foods are just regular foods but with a lot less food provided in the package for a much greater price, as is typically seen with frozen dinners. However I don’t believe this will be an issue. There are two ways one can lose weight via their diets. One, he or she makes healthier decisions and pick foods with greater health benefits while avoiding junk foods. Two, he or she simply eats less. It’s fairly simple: consuming less calories will decrease your weight and/or weight gain if you keep all other variables the same. It’s all a matter of how much value people put into weight loss or eating healthily. If eating healthily in my mind is priced at two dollars, and I can get a nice salad for three bucks, then I’m only paying one dollar for food. If the double cheeseburger at McDonald’s starts to cost two dollars, I’m saving a dollar on food every time I buy a salad, and thus I will make the choice to go with the savings every single time. Another way to think about this is to simply state the obvious, that in this situation, the salad only costs a dollar more, and it’s going to be much better for you in the long run, depending on what kind of salad it is of course.

In time people will begin to get used to the increased price of food. Again, I don’t know if prices will continue to rise, but I do know that America will be prepared to adapt to it, much as they have with the current prices of gas. I will also reiterate that this article is about the benefits of the rising cost of food, and that there are plenty of negative side effects as well. Perhaps I’ll touch on the bad effects of these rising prices in a future post, but for now, keep in mind everything that could be potentially beneficial from this phenomenon.

As always, I will entertain any questions, comments, or concerns via email at crowtche@juniorpolitics.com or by dropping a comment.