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Yes, the factors on prices are convoluted.
There's market forces such as global trade and supply & demand (some foods have elastic demand, while others have inelastic demand), and then there's government subsidies on certain food industries.
Another factor is food production and purveying. Growing crops, fishing the oceans, etc. aren't stable practices.
Also consider such things as the cost of packaging. Paper costs have gone up over the years by quite a bit as well.
I'll note, too, that relatively speaking, food in the U.S. is still fairly cheap. Though much of it is regional as well, even within one country. I was always amazed at how dirt cheap junk food is just south of the border in northern New York State.
Less than a dollar for things? That's still possible where you are?
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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