KARL: The president claims that Thanksgiving costs are down 25%. Does he know that's not true? HASSETT: Well if you look at Walmart-- KARL: Wait a minute. I've gotta stop you. The Walmart package this year contains much less than the one last year. That's why the price is less.

Talking #tariffs and food affordability on CBS Evening News. Rolling back some of the #food tariffs helps ease upward pressure, but prices are downward-sticky. Any relief at the grocery store will take time.

The arsonist turned firefighter

Brooke Rollins says on Newsmax SNAP participants will have to re-apply for the program. Details are still unclear. via Grace Yarrow for @politico.com www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

Ahead of Thanksgiving, many families, and the grocers who serve them, face tough choices. Delays in #SNAP payments strain budgets and ripple through communities. I spoke with @nytimes.com about what’s at stake for families and food retailers. 👇

Here's the promised longer explainer: www.stevevladeck.com/p/190-snap-wtf

Food prices since Trump took office

Food economist here 🙋🏽‍♂️ would like to disagree and point out that grocery inflation since Trump took office has accelerated relative to the preceding months. Also those price increases for coffee, ground beef, chocolate, bananas, and canned goods in recent months? That’s in large part the tariffs!

We crunched the federal data and found the US is on track to have the *fewest inspections since 2011* (excluding pandemic years). In recent years, the FDA has typically been able to conduct ~110 foreign food inspections each month, but in March, the number of inspections dropped almost in half.

We’ve made America so great that I just booked a backup rental car for my weekend return flight home. 🙄

*checks price data* Wholesale turkey 🦃 prices 40%🔺y/y Retail beef roast 🥩 prices 18%🔺

SCOTUS skeptical of Trump’s tariffs during oral arguments today.

Since the president took office, food prices have increased 1.7% 📈 Groceries are up 1.6% 🔺 Menu prices are up 2.5% 🔺

Chocolate prices are scary high this Halloween 🎃🍫📈 Cocoa costs have surged to record highs after years of poor harvests in West Africa — where most of the world’s cocoa is grown. The result? Smaller bars, more fillers, and higher prices.

Breaking down what’s behind your rising grocery costs with my friends at PBS NewsHour 🛒📈 🔗 Full segment youtu.be/YqIGSdKn184

Since Sept. 1, bird flu outbreaks have wiped out 1.2 million turkeys from farms supplying meat for dinner tables—or 20 times more than at the start of last year's flu season. Egg-laying hens face a similar uptick. I wrote about what this could mean for Thanksgiving, egg prices, and biosecurity. 🧵

POTUS: - stops $ to buy US farmers' products for hungry Americans shrinking farmers' domestic market - vaporizes US farmers' foreign markets via tariffs - sends billions tax $ to Argentina to bail out Trump donors while Argentina boosts its farmers sales to US farmers' former customers

Breaking down what’s behind your rising grocery costs with my friends at PBS NewsHour 🛒📈 🔗 Full segment youtu.be/YqIGSdKn184

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Lansing, Michigan #NoKings

Great article out today in the NYT on the history of processed and ultra processed foods. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Well, well, well... looks like they’re finally catching up. Now do #tariffs 🤔 www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

"BLS will publish the September 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Friday, October 24, 2025, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time. No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services." www.bls.gov/bls/092025-c...

About those soybean sales to Chinas...

Turkey prices are set to rise this Thanksgiving 🦃🍽️📈 Bird flu and AMPV have hit flocks hard, pushing bird numbers to a 40-year low. Production is ~6% and wholesale prices are 🔺~25% y/y. No need to panic as there will still be plenty of 🦃 in stores, but you may likely pay a bit more this year 💸.

Turkey prices are set to rise this Thanksgiving 🦃🍽️📈 Bird flu and AMPV have hit flocks hard, pushing bird numbers to a 40-year low. Production is ~6% and wholesale prices are 🔺~25% y/y. No need to panic as there will still be plenty of 🦃 in stores, but you may likely pay a bit more this year 💸.

The drop in international student arrivals into the US is pretty staggering. Nearly 20% less students traveled to the US this August compared to last year. 🌏 24% drop in students from Asia 🌍 32% drop in students from Africa

The tomato theory of everything 1/3

Farmers don’t want government payments, they’re looking for access to export markets, and our current trade policy is making that extremely difficult. Also, four weeks is an eternity for soybean farmers.

As if high food prices weren’t enough, now even storing your groceries will cost more thanks to the #tariffs www.nytimes.com/2025/09/27/r...

The warning I wrote in my @newsweek.com op-ed last year is now playing out. China, historically the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans, hasn’t purchased a single bushel from this year’s harvest. Washington is once again talking about sending 💵 to farmers. www.newsweek.com/american-agr...

The warning I wrote in my @newsweek.com op-ed last year is now playing out. China, historically the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans, hasn’t purchased a single bushel from this year’s harvest. Washington is once again talking about sending 💵 to farmers. www.newsweek.com/american-agr...

Trump said he was going to make things cheeper, he did not

Grocery prices are jumping up. I explain why in my @usatoday.com story with insights from @michiganstateu.bsky.social professor David Ortega and a Wells Fargo economist. www.usatoday.com/story/grocer...

This is, by other means, version 2.0 of the move of ERS to KC during trump1, which effectively set the agency back and reduced its portfolio particularly on env'l issues. Now they are gutting ERS because of its good work in showing evidence of structural inequities and poverty. A real disgrace.

🚨Update: Acting USDA ERS administrator among those placed on indefinite leave over the termination of the food insecurity/hunger survey. This was reported by Agri-Pulse and has since been confirmed to me by an internal source. www.agri-pulse.com/articles/234...

This morning, the @chicagofed introduced new labor market indicators that combine private sector data with official labor statistics to provide a real-time view of hiring, layoffs and other job separations, and an early forecast of the unemployment rate. www.chicagofed.org/research/dat....

Wait, it gets worse. The team of economists and researchers responsible for the USDA survey that measures food insecurity and hunger were put on indefinite paid leave today. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

I’m not that type of doctor, but just pointing out that Autism was recognized as an independent condition in 1943, and Tylenol was introduced (by prescription only) in 1955.

I’m not that type of doctor, but just pointing out that Autism was recognized as an independent condition in 1943, and Tylenol was introduced (by prescription only) in 1955.

Wait, it gets worse. The team of economists and researchers responsible for the USDA survey that measures food insecurity and hunger were put on indefinite paid leave today. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Hunger is too scary to measure?

USDA just terminated the food insecurity survey. Read their press release and tell me this isn’t politically motivated. www.usda.gov/about-usda/n...

Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued. Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially. Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.

The federal government is canceling the leading national survey of household food insecurity and hunger in the United States, @wsj.com reported today. The Dec 2025 survey will be canceled, while the Oct 2025 report based on Dec 2024 data will be released as usual. (1/4)

The U.S. food security data to be cancelled by Trump's USDA has been of huge value but is often misunderstood -- and the WSJ piece breaking the news is exceptionally clear about what's at stake

In August grocery prices registered their largest monthly increase in 3 years. I spoke to my friends over at @cnn.com about how the tariffs, immigration crackdowns, and climate change are driving the cost of food higher 📈 #inflation

"Grocery prices have become a hot-button political flash point over the past couple of years."