Food prices rising, but no shortage in U.S.

Nevertheless Hurt, the agricultural economist, believes that higher food prices, like higher fuel prices, may become a fact of life for Americans in coming years. But it’s not clear how much more money Americans will have to allocate to food. Currently, Americans spend about 8 percent of their disposable income on food, or about 10 percent if beverages are factored in, Hurt said.

If price increases continue, Hurt expects to see Americans make dietary changes.

At first, that might be similar to what we’re already seeing — more families choosing to cook steak at home rather than eat it in a restaurant, for example. But further down the road, we might see Americans in general consume more fruits and vegetables, which require fewer resources to produce, and rely less on meat. Americans also may find themselves substituting cheaper foods, such as potatoes, for rice or bread.

“A number of us as consumers will have to adjust our food consumption patterns,” Hurt said.

The U.S. situation pales in comparison to what is going on elsewhere in the world, where a sharp increase in food prices has pushed millions of people closer to starvation.

“Even after these price increases that are going to ripple through the system and stay with us for a while, by world standards, we’re in great shape,” said the USDA’s Bange.

David Beckmann, president of the advocacy group Bread for the World, estimates that 100 million more people may routinely go hungry as a result of recent price spikes that are likely to become permanent. That’s on top of the approximately 850 million who were already routinely undernourished, he said.  Even in the United States, Beckmann said food banks are being swamped, and there are concerns that more American children are going without food.

Still, even worldwide Beckmann said he's more worried about people being able to afford food than about people not being able to find food.

“Both in developing countries and in our country, the problem is not that there’s not going to be food in the stores,” Beckmann said. “The problem is that some people are really poor, and there’s not going to be food in their stomachs.”

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