Retail food prices are less volatile than farm prices

Corn, wheat, and soybeans are the top three U.S. field crops and comprise the majority of field crop inputs to the U.S. food supply. The average farm price of these crops, weighted by total production, regularly rises or falls by more than 10 percent from year-to-year. However, these price swings have relatively small impacts on food prices. In 2021, the production-weighted price of these crops increased by 50 percent while food prices increased by 4 percent. Price fluctuations of intermediate foods and feeds generally fall between swings in field crop and food prices.

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