The “inflation” of Thanksgiving summarized below is not about the increased mass marketing hoopla that corporations create every holiday to make us think the more stuff we buy, the greater will be the enjoyment, if not “meaning,” of the day or season. Thanksgiving is actually a lousy holiday to commercialize. Afterall, there’s only so much profit to be gained from peddling Turkeys/Tofurkys, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
Nor are we focusing on the "inflation" of the giant Thanksgiving Day Parade floats that will wind their way through the streets of New York City.
The more significant Thanksgiving “inflation” is the inflated prices of consumer products, including food, which have skyrocketed. We can thank major food corporations for this.
At-home food prices soared 11.4% from 2021 to 2022, the largest percentage increase since 1974. At-home food prices are expected to rise another 5.1% by the end of this year. This has increased hunger for millions of people in the U.S.
Rising food prices are a major cause for rising hunger. About 17 million households, or 12.8%, were food insecure in 2022, up 3.5 million households from 2021.
Food corporations claim that their price increases are due to “inflationary pressures” like higher prices for grains and animal feed, labor costs and delays. However, the prices of many agricultural commodities have declined, and inflation has been outpacing wage increases.
Corporate concentration is the major cause. When any industry is controlled by only a few entities, it’s called an “oligopoly.” That’s the food industry. A small number of food corporations have gobbled up a majority of the food chain.
The results are rising prices and corporate profits. With few competitors in the market, giant corporations have raised prices. Meanwhile, corporate profits are at a 70 year high as food corporations like Cargill, General Mills, Tyson Foods and Conagra raked in billions in profits as they raised prices. The same goes for grocery giants like Walmart.
The following charts detail the corporate concentration of the food industry.
These 10 corporations dominate the food market
That includes organic food brands
Major food corporations not only bought out many smaller
food companies, but they're connected to other major
corporations.
The public increasingly understands that price gouging of
corporations is largely responsible for rising prices.
Price gouging continues because Congress hasn't stopped it. Political campaign contributions / lobbying in 2022 by the top 10 corporations listed above keeps the status quo in place.
Coca-Cola: $910,000 / $4.5 million
Pepsico: $718,000 / $4.1 million
General Mills: $170,000 / $1.2 million
Kellogg (now Kellanova): $101,000 / $1.4 million
Mars: $105,000 / $1.4 million
Unilever: $51,000 / $840,000
Johnson & Johnson: $1.2 million / $7.8 million
Procter & Gamble: $575,000 / $3.2 million
Nestle: $58,000 / $863,000
Kraft: $233,000 / $790,000
- Source: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/all-profiles
Congress will continue to feast on financial support from the price-gouging food industry until we stop it. It's time for a strict diet on their money gorging by ending the legalized bribery that comes from political money defined as free speech and a corporation defined as a person.
This "democratic diet" is none other than the We the People Amendment, HJR54. It's up to us to educate, advocate and organize for its passage.
Giving voice to those without money in the political system and affirming that local and state passed laws won't be preempted by corporations as described in Why we need the We the People Amendment is a great way to inflate democracy.
We are sincerely thankful for all your support!
Onward toward creating the world we all deserve,
Shelly, George, Cole, Daniel, Tara, Alfonso, Jessica, Kelsey, Jennie, Keyan, Michael, Margaret, Katie, Ambrosia, Jason, & Greg
- Move to Amend National Team
