Rising grocery prices have been putting significant strain on consumer budgets. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen shared her view on rising food prices and agricultural investment in an exclusive interview with Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger.
Yellen says the rise in food prices stems from increases in costs, such as higher labor costs, though she does note “there may be some increases in margins.”
However, Yellen does not see a need for government intervention in the agricultural sector, stating, “I would be reluctant to agree that we should be involved in subsidizing agriculture.”
Watch Yahoo Finance’s full interview with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen here
This post was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
Have you been to the grocery store lately?
I have every week.
It’s sticker shock, isn’t it?
Just when you look at shipping costs, those have come down.
Global food commodity prices have also come down.
But food prices still remain high.
I know they’re not rising at the rate that they were last year, but they’re still up 20% from PRE COVID.
So, should the US invest in agriculture to boost the food supply in this country?
Well, I think largely reflects cost increases including labor cost increases that um firms, um grocery firms have experienced, although there may be some increases in margins.
Um uh earlier today, um I met with a group of CEO S including the CEO of Target and um they explained and they’ve announced that uh they understand that households are struggling with uh costs including food costs and they have um undertaken uh cuts in the price of bread, milk, uh diapers, other um core purchases that are necessities for households.
And I think that’s to be applauded.
I think it’s, that kind of thing is helpful.
Um But uh I would be reluctant to agree that we should be involved in subsidizing agriculture and agriculture.
