4 of Congress’ farmers weigh in on how to solve high food prices – By Garrett Downs and Meredith Lee Hill (Politico) / Feb 14, 2023
Congressional farmers all agree about what’s raising prices on their farms. They have different ideas about how to fix it.
Inflation continued to ease in January, fueled by the overall declining cost of energy and consumer goods. But one data point remains stubbornly high: food prices. And few in Washington can agree on how best to rein them in.
According to the January Consumer Price Index, the annual inflation rate dropped slightly to 6.4 percent from 6.5 percent, a figure that’s likely to cheer the Biden White House and Democrats. But the report — a closely watched measure of the economy — also found that the price of food in January increased slightly from the month before and was 10.1 percent higher than it was in January 2022, with the cost of eggs, meat and poultry leading the surge.
While the annual rate of inflation saw a slight decrease, prices rose on a monthly basis with housing costs being the largest contributor to the increase.
The factors driving high food prices are complex and political leaders have few tools to address them. So POLITICO turned to a group of Washington’s experts — four members of Congress who are also working farmers.
CONTINUE > https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/14/food-prices-farmers-congress-00082688
