Southern Thanksgiving Costs Ease, Thanks to Our Growers

It’s Thanksgiving week across the South, and while families are putting together their grocery lists, farmers and growers in our region are carrying the weight of another challenging year. According to the American Farm Bureau, the classic Thanksgiving dinner for ten people will cost about $50 here in the South, the lowest of any region in the country. That is roughly 5 percent lower than last year, although still higher than what we were paying before prices jumped a few years ago.

Even with that small break for shoppers, producers throughout the Southeast continue to face higher fuel, fertilizer, labor, machinery and land costs. Those pressures are showing up most clearly in side dishes that depend on fresh produce. Sweet potatoes are up significantly after hurricane damage in North Carolina reduced yields, and fresh vegetable trays posted some of the largest increases this season.

A few items like stuffing, dinner rolls and cranberries did drop in price. And as families gather around the table this week, it is worth taking a moment to thank the growers who keep showing up and working through the certainty of uncertainty, whether it is rising input costs, unpredictable weather or shifting markets, year after year.