The Federal Reserve Banks of Minneapolis and Kansas City are co-hosted a virtual symposium to discuss food costs and the long-term outlook. During the forum, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Vice President Nathan Kauffman said the current increase in food and commodity prices is similar to what happened in 2013. “Price surges are usually driven by severe production disruptions,” explained Kauffman. “Occasionally, price surges are driven by demand growth, like in 2013, where we saw rapid economic growth in China and the establishment of biofuel policies in the U.S.” Land O’Lakes President & CEO Beth Ford was also part of the conference and said farmers are feeling the impact of high input costs. “Transportation, trucking, rail, and warehousing are all facing interruptions that are driving up prices.”
