Europe’s farmers are struggling, but some sympathetic consumers have difficulty affording their food (Associated Press)

The Associated Press writes in a story, "Farmer protests across Europe this week have highlighted how farmers and households are both hurting these days because of multiple factors, including persistent inflation, high interest rates and volatile energy prices." 

Consumers aren’t seeing big benefits from lower prices for wheat and other food commodities traded on global markets because the price surge that’s been seen at the grocery store is tied to other costs after food leaves the farm, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.  Things like energy costs and higher wages for labor have been “affecting every step of food processing, all the way to the retail shelves,” he said. 

Now, farmers in the European Union, Ukraine and Russia are facing the fallout from shipping companies diverting vessels from the Red Sea trade route on longer journeys around the tip of southern Africa. 

Glauber says, “Those costs get passed back to producers.” 

 “Economies have slowed, especially in Europe, so food inflation has eased, but “people still think back two years ago and say, ‘Boy,this meat is still very expensive relative to what I was paying two years ago," he added.

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