I can’t afford to live much longer. Not if food prices keep going up the way they have been in the past 5 to 6 years. Sure, all our indicators show a cost of living increase of approximately 16 percent since September 1998. But America’s food shoppers have seen price increases of 40 percent, 50 percent and more in too many products. Such increases are 250 percent to 300 percent more than the inflation rate!

Yet, this matter of food price increases is almost totally ignored by social commentators and it is rarely alluded to in presidential campaign politics. Voters of both parties feel this choking economic reality because we all have to eat. We ask that the candidates pay attention to this widely felt distress.

Just how bad is the situation? I begin with my own “survey” using saved receipts, which indicate purchase prices for the same brand item. Sizes and weights are the same for every item compared. Prices are regular shelf prices from two New Jersey supermarkets.

From the fall of 1998 – receipts from late September and October – to the week of Sept. 20, 2004, I find the following: At one market, Post Banana Nut cereal up 43 percent to $4.29; a package of six Kaiser rolls up 116 percent to $2.79; Progresso soup up 41 percent to $2.39 a can; a package of house brand spinach up 54 percent to $2.29. At the other market, Kellog’s Crispix cereal up 39 percent to $3.89; a can of house brand sauerkraut up 48 percent to $0.49; Herbox bouillon packets up 51 percent to $1.19. Broccoli is up 100 percent to $1.99 a bunch; Swiss Chard up 39 percent to $1.29 a pound; a quart of Parmalat milk up 46 percent to $1.59.

Comparisons from September-October 2000 reveal similar outrageous price inflation. Sliced Italian style Wonder Bread (on sale) is up 51 percent to $1. 50. All brands of bread are up drastically in the past few years. Mini-danish breakfast treats were up 33 percent to $3.99. Most snacks have followed suit.

Beyond my own survey, I have collected data from other shoppers whose figures are based on “dead reckoning memory,” that is, they know what they paid for a particular item. A mother of two children, a toddler and a four year old, states that baby formula is up nearly 100 percent in four years and that Gerber baby food is up 28 percent while the jars are now smaller in size. Eye Round Roast Beef on sale is up 53 percent and lamb chops (loin) are up 50 percent.

From Iowa, a shopper researched same-store product price increases in the last 10 years. Inflation for the Iowa region was 26 percent for that period, but: 5 pounds of homemade noodles were up 133 percent; a 16 oz. can of pork and beans was up 72 percent; a 32 oz. jar of molasses up 40 percent; Swiss cheese up 82 percent; and cherry pie filling up 188 percent.

After you buy your food, you have to cook it. Gas – cooking and heating – from my utility is up 34 percent since January 2001.

Well, what is the situation in your neighborhood?

Hyperinflation of food prices erodes the quality of life for a great majority of our citizens and belies many myths about living in America. It seems that we are a nation of food shoppers dependent on flyers announcing sales, coupons offering bargains, and “price club cards” which track every item we ever buy with them. Such devices tell us what we can afford to eat in any given week.

Why is this terrible inflationary situation overlooked? In good part, it is because of the way we define a “Market Basket of Goods and Services.”

Food counts for only 16 percent of the cost of living. Funny things are found in hidden corners of this basket under Miscellaneous Goods and Services: for example, golf club memberships, chainsaws, DVD players and other now cheap high-tech gizmos. Declines in these costs bring down the overall rate of cost of living increase.

Another reason for overlooked hyperinflation lies in a game of hide-and-seek between chain store food executives and Department of Labor field workers. The government specially trains its inspectors to look for the loaves of store brand bread that are on sale for $0.99 or less. Trained store personnel make sure they find them. Hence, in the mythical market basket, bread has been $0.99 for years. This game has to end.

Perhaps we can do a few things to improve the situation. One would be to take advantage of the free products of nature. Grasses and leaves can replace green-leafed vegetables. Acorns may be a good source of protein. And bark from trees and woody plants (a super delicacy) might be employed in various gourmet ways. But as the disclaimer states, I wouldn’t try this at home.

A Marie Antoinette, noting that the price of lemons has remained unchanged for 6 years, might graciously tell food eaters: “Let them eat lemons. “

Well, I don’t want lemons. I want a lemon-meringue pie.

Silvio Laccetti is professor of Humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. Readers may contact him there, Castle Point on Hudson, Hoboken, N.J.

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