Food Inflation in Pope County

Although inflation is cooling off in many sectors of the US economy, food inflation continues to surge, indicating the volatility of the agri-food system. The higher food prices make it difficult for US consumers to afford everyday essential food products. The main objective of this research is to calculate food inflation in the pope county area. We utilized the consumer price index (CPI) to measure the change in prices paid by pope county consumers for food. Our preliminary analyses show that food prices in pope county are easing. Specifically, the food inflation rate in pope county declined in March 2023 compared to January 2023