AFBF Marketbasket Survey

My 92 year old mom-in-law loves her bacon. So when she started hearing that bacon might soon be hard to come by she went into what could only be considered a tail spin. Economists, however , say if you’re worried about your bacon supply, you shouldn’t be. Reportedly, the rumors of a pork shortage in the coming months have been greatly exaggerated. Many economists, including American Farm Bureau economist, John Anderson, says that USDA’s projection that the U.S. supply of pork will drop around 1.3 percent in 2013 isn’t that much more than he would expect normally. According to the American Farm Bureau’s Quarterly Marketbasket Survey shoppers paid nearly two percent more for groceries during the third quarter. This increase was prompted by just a few items, such as eggs, cereals, and breakfast meats, but Anderson says that an overall market look shows a fairly stable market basket and in fact, compared to a year ago, it’s actually down a little bit. Consumers have reason to be wary of rising food prices due to the drought, but other than these few items, it really is too early yet for consumers to be feeling crunched at the supermarket checkout.