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Food on the up and up

(article, Culinate staff)

What with the recession and all, you may not have noticed that food prices actually stabilized in the past year or so. But your grocery bills are about to go up again, says the Minneapolis Star Tribune:_

bq. Most analysts aren't expecting a return to the 5.5 percent food-inflation rate of 2008. But some say the increases could be a sharp departure from the 1.8 percent rate of 2009 and the even tamer increase expected for all of 2010.

What's the cause of the expected spike? An overall rise in commodity costs:

bq. Surging food-production ingredient costs are spurring the increases. U.S. sugar prices are at highs not seen in at least two decades. Commodity prices for coffee are at a 13-year high. And wheat prices hit a two-year high in August.

You've been warned.