Prices of food, fertilizer remain high as war adds to inflation (TND) 

The National Desk (TND) published an article about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is harming the global food supply so severely it may lead to a worldwide shortage. In the U.S. and other rich countries, the underwhelming supply of wheat, corn, and vegetable oils won’t lead to empty shelves but will help keep the cost of food high, according to Joseph Glauber, a senior research fellow and former chief economist at the Department of Agriculture. Other inflationary pressures like higher labor and transportation costs are playing a bigger factor at the checkout line than shortages in global commodities. “In a loaf of bread, only about 5 percent of the value is the actual wheat, so you can double that price of wheat and the price of bread in theory only should go up around 5 percent,” Glauber said. “For food inflation here in the U.S., it’s the other 75 percent of the added value that also is seeing inflationary pressures right now. You have higher energy costs, you have labor costs, you have transportation costs, all those things have gone (up).”