We need food, we need shelter, and sooner or later we need healthcare. They are price gouging us on all three, because no one is stopping them.

I got tired of doing nothing: I gave up meat, dairy, and eggs, took out half the backyard to grow fruit & vegetables, and started cooking. I am now healthier at 70 than I was at 50. 💚

Quit calling it Inflation, IT IS PRICE GOUGING ! ! !

Unfortunately I’ve said it before: greed will destroy this country.

We are in a sewer of toxic greed.

48 years old and walking around the grocery store with a calculator like I did when I was in college I had hoped life would be better by now. 😢

The food companies realized they can gouge us, and we'll pay.

Unregulated capitalism has turned our economic and production systems upside down.

Michael Pollan talked about oligopolies, The Sherman Antitrust Act, and Teddy Roosevelt in ways I haven't heard in the media for a long time. And he gives Biden due credit. Great guest. Voters should listen to him.

Because corporations are out of control!

Robert Reich, what you have to say is so important! I am a 76-year-old retired schoolteacher, and I like to stay well informed. However, I just started having questions about anti-trust and how it works several months ago. I guarantee you, the American people do not know about the monopolies And what Trump did to help them. The Democrats have got to get better at messaging. Robert, get Biden to let you make your drawings and videos to get these messages across to the American people. It is so important! That would help Biden win.

The prices are inflated because the grocery store CEO’s know people have to eat… Gouge, gouge, gouge!

A handful of corrupt officials shouldn’t own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange. Workers make America run, workers should run America.💙🌎Ⓐ

This evil country is killing us with the food and water sources, out of greed. I lived in Italy for three years where I had healthy, reasonably priced food, and free and outstanding health care. I regret that I ever returned to this, my birth country.

We shop at a family grocery chain, buy our coffee from a local coffee roaster, buy locally grown meat and veggies in season. We can afford to do this and live where this local business support is possible, a truly privileged situation. My mother lived in a rural town where the local “grocery” was the dollar store, supplemented by three convenience stores. How is this possible? I think you present the answer: the drive for corporate profits deprives so many people in this country, contribute to food deserts and is responsible for poor nutrition and hunger. It’s appalling!

My friend who was a farmer told me that as equipment costs grew and grew, over the decades and years, and tractors, planters, sprayer, harvesters, etc., etc., became more computerized, those equipment companies refused to allow farmers to do their own maintenance of their equipment or fix their own equipment. The equipment makers forced the farmers to go through them for maintenance ad repairs, with their reason being, they had to protect the proprietary electronic and computerized secrets of their manufacturing process. This is gouging the farmers with the high cost of repairs and maintenance due to having to go through the manufacturer for that.

As a small farmer in east-central Nebraska, there's so much I could write on this, but I'll keep it to a few points. By small, we have 160 acres--for someone from a city, that sounds like a lot but in the farming community where families these days typically own between 2,000-50,000 acres, we are a blip on the screen. The only reason I can be here is because I am inheriting the land from my parents. The cost of land in my area, which is not even the best in our region, is inflated by both in-state and out-of-state people that bid the land into something unreachable. Another 160-acre quarter-section just a mile from me recently went for over $14,000/acre or over $2 million. I can't buy that. I can't finance that. I can't even sniff that. And I have a farm right here. Do you think someone who would like to just get into the farming community could afford that? Absolutely not. And the equipment to farm it? Nope. So if a small farmer cannot get any bigger, and if someone trying to get into farming cannot afford it, what happens? The big get bigger, or someone out-of-state buys it and rents to the highest bidder--again, someone who already farms more than they could ever possibly need to make a living. This not only pushes kids away when they get out of high school, but it keeps new blood from coming in. It also means that since they paid so much for the land, they are 'forced' to plant cash crops capable of bringing the most bang for their buck with minimal effort or input--namely corn and soybeans (or whatever other regional crops in other areas). It's always been said that if the gov't subsidized fruits and vegetables the same way they did corn and soybeans, farmers would be growing that instead.... yes and no. There's something to be said for being able to plant with a 24-row planter in a few hours and then move to the next field and so on, especially if you have 10,000 acres to get in. And that goes for animal agriculture as well. Around here, our 'esteemed' Governor has hog confinements all over the place. Back even just 30 years ago, a small farmer could raise a few hundred head a year and make some extra money to go along with the crops. But the more and more Pillen, and people like him, have industrialized that, they make contracts with the meat packers and the price plummets. Why does WalMart have low prices? So they can sell a billion of some cheap piece of junk and make a few pennies per item; but the sheer amount nets them a big profit. Same with hog confinements (or chickens, turkeys, etc). For us, it wasn't worth the hassle or time involved for a slim profit--much less if something happened, then you are in the hole. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but they aren't always locally available to some folks. I could go on and on and on, but it looks like I've already wrote more than anyone will probably read, so I'll stop there. Thank for all that you do, folks

Producers should form co-ops and sell directly to consumers. All of us would benefit.

I found it interesting when the $20/hr fast food worker bill hit the news every franchise owner that was interviewed on national media owned between 10 and 25 franchise locations. It's pretty hard to believe that these owners are just getting by when they keep buying more franchises.

The problem is not individual choices, it is structural and systemic. No amount of "buy local" propaganda is going to turn this ship around. The priorities of the policies, regulations, and laws are the problem. We need policies, regulations, and laws that prioritize people and the planet above profits.

It is because 3 major mega corporations own everything.. and they must profit every quarter

Thank you for your service Robert. 😊

"I want to see people living life, not just fighting to survive" THIS! Thank you for your truth & wisdom fast food worker by job, change- warrior by soul! Can't wait to view & share this documentary!!

Here in Linn County, our church joined the Feed Iowa First urban farming program. Almost half the lawn is now a garden providing tomatoes, celery, corn, amaranth, and other produce for local food pantries. More city parks are getting community gardens, too. Find out what local programs are available, and support them as possible.

Excellent discussion! We would be better off to talk about this instead of all the tRump crap!

Corn is one of the the most highly sprayed crops with pesticides, unless organicly grown , and modern corn has zilch nutritional value. We need to grow healthy foods and encourage personal and community gardening .

I used to shop at Fred Meyers, a subsidiary of Kroger. Their prices are currently obscene. Both Albertsons and Fred Meyers are only blocks apart, leaving few choices for many in my neighborhood. Not only that, but these stores sell nutritionally weak foods packaged with too much salt, sugar, and fat.

I am, at the moment, I Budapest, Hungary. every day or so, I walk to a local public market or to one of a group as small chain stores (Spa, Penny, Conrad) Most of the produce, proteins, pickles come from within 200 miles Away. Even most processed foods (tomato sauce comes in a hyper pasteurized cardboard box as does most milk), originates within miles from NYC. I cannot buy food of this quality in the states (I live in Newark, NJ just 30km from NYC). I can go to a market that is more tourist driven and pay higher prices but I don't have to. Top to bottom, Amazon, Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midlands, need to be highly regulated or disassembled. Don't believe that prices will rise because of loss of efficiencies. These companies are all posting record PROFITS while actively gouging prices and reducing pay to employees and degrading produce quality

Even a crook like Nixon put the brakes on price increases! As a resident of New Jersey, my town used to be mostly farm land. New Jersey grows more than tomatoes! In the past 40 years, all of the farm land was sold off to build shopping centers and car dealerships! Now,a lot of those malls are empty! How’s that for progress?

I grow organic plants and sell them while teaching people how to grow their own food and take back their health and bring the Earth back with them. I am watching the food industry poison and brainwash trusting people who haven’t learned what real food is all about. Thank you all for getting this in front of so many. Keep up the great work!

Every American needs to see this. Thank you, #SenatorCoryBooker #GoVEGAN 👏🌱

The cost of housing is what’s really out of control. I know young couples, some with kids, who both work full-time, and spend over 50% of their income on tiny one- or two-bedroom apartments. Add in the cost of transportation to and from work (our area does not have great public transport), and it’s no wonder the price of groceries looms large.

Our local Kroger used to be my favorite store. But shortly after the ppp loan program they had a team go in and radically rearrange the store. They put in new upgraded fixtures and made the shelves two feet taller. Then they hiked the prices so much that I seldom shop there anymore. So the government gave them money so they could hike the prices. Basically if they continue on this path and merge with other markets so that the grocery conglomerates can continue to gouge, without any oversight or controls in place it is getting more out of control. The corporations need to have some rules. No multimillions for ceo. No stock buybacks for start. This is how government creates its own pork. A serious lack of oversight and controls creates a conscience less rich class who only care about themselves and nobody else.

71 years old and walking around the grocery store with my brain like I did in my California college. 10 items = $5, give or take a dollar. Before the pandemic in NYC (2019), it was about $3.50 an item and add $10, or about $45, with coupons and sales. Now those 10 items are more than $5 each and add $15 (or $20 to be safe), or about $75! That’s a HUGE price increase, especially since there are no supply chain issues anymore. No competition is a license for price gouging, especially when you (Big Business) can buy a Congressperson for pocket change.

Thank you Robert Reich and Guests

Thank you for the service you provide.

Money is king and follow it to congress and how they make laws.

It's good that this is a bigger conversation these days. The disparity explains why not enough people understand the health effects of this cycle. I have been self-employed for 30 years and haven't spent more than 25% of food moneies in corporate owned food supply lines in 20 years. It takes planning, but it becomes easier. I've haven't spent a penny at Amazon, or on meat or cheese from a grocery store, any food with corn syrups. Overall, I save money because I have less waste and my money stays local, so my money, and that of more people in my community, continue to have what we need, and a smaller% of our money makes it to the corporations outside of our loop. Yet, here they are with record profits, it's time to shift the mono cropping, shopping, knowledge and behaviors of the people, and more people will be healthier and keep more of their money. I don't feel bad when corps loose stock or money sink em I say. 💚💙

I seriously look forward to the Saturday Coffee Club. Thanks so much.

Fantastic interview.....thank you Robert. Truth matters. Have had the good fortune to avoid the contaminated food chain basically. A little space grows alot of food. My heart goes out to the many people with no choice, no inkling that their food is such poor quality. It is a very sad state of affairs. It is my hope that big business is forced to rethink their greed and help people instead of monopolizing the food chain at the expense of poisoning the people. It will be a very difficult to change the greedy mindset, but we as a people must try. Poor health is a direct result for so many.👍💗

18:52 capitalism absolutely ISNT about competition. Capitalism is an ownership structure of enterprises which separates workers and owners, and it inevitably tends towards oligopoly or monopoly. Saying that "capitalism is about competition and free markets" is nothing more than fantasy and propaganda.

My wife works with a organic farmer who works off the farm for affordable insurance and a consistent stream of income. We just ordered beef from him for when he next has cattle butchered. Better beef and cheaper than in the stores. I have been gardening since I was a child. I continued this as an adult. My family eats from this garden all summer long with plenty to share and we can and freeze the excess for the winter. Not everyone has a large enough yard to have a large garden as we do, but if you have a yard, you can grow a surptising amount of food from a 10x10 patch in a sunny spot

The question is still How Much Is Enough? For shareholders, for corporations, for C-suites. For individuals worth a hundred million, if liquid, would have a mere $5.5M annually to live off without touching principle. That’s a mere $15k daily, $450k monthly. I mean WTF? How much is enough? 4 of 7 deadly “sins” in play. Greed, envy, lust, gluttony. Stop the f-ing madness.

22:20 remember, more than a third of crops grown are fed to livestock - a process which wastes anything from 75-95% of the nutritional value of the crops. If the land used to grow feedstock was instead used to grow crops for humans and we ate that instead of animals, it would spare 80% of US farmland overall.

Wait what? The merger between Kroger and Albertsons is not going through? Did I hear that right?

If you pay your workers well, they will buy more,of your products. Great point!

This is why local regenerative grassfed, grass-finished beef and bison, and other pasture raised meat is so much better for the farmer and consumer.

Excellent podcast!

I would call it gouging rather than inflation.

If the thought of what we are doing to ourselves and to our beautiful planet doesn't bring you to actual tears, i fear nothing will.

Thank you for bringing this back to public attention! I've been trying to tell whomever will listen... This is the new age of the Robber Barons!

20:03 1.Watch carbon cowboys, films by Pete Blyck 2. Farmers using AMP Grazing is absolutely NOT a CAFO, so don’t allow states to call small farms who use AMP grazing a CAFO, causing small farmers to be unable to compete against large food. Small farmers using AMP grazing have brought back quail, broken the parasite lifecycle, and virtually eliminated their use of chemical fertilizers.

Its definitely price gouging. 🤬

_“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”_ *- Bill Mollison* (Founder of Permaculture)

Thank you for posting these great voices! The truth has to get out there! Everybody should share this interview.

President Biden and VP Harris have to get louder. Please. They are accomplishing important shifts that benefit all of us.

Walmart, McDonald’s, Kroger and others can pay their workers a living wage and still post billions in profits.

😊 It's back to Victory Gardens. You can grow veggies on a balcony! 🥔🥕🫛🥬🍄🍅🧄🌶

I got this! GREED! Save yourself a half hour! Prices are up because of corporate GREED!! Period! They gouged us during the pandemic and lied about dwindling supplies, and they’ve just kept it going!!

Unfortunately, local produce & meat often costs a lot more, making it difficult for people on tight budgets. Make it illegal for corporations to makes “donations” to politicians & political campaigns! No more payoffs from lobbyists!

Climate change is impacting crop yields globally leading to higher prices. This has been happening for several years now but it's getting much worse. Floods, droughts and heatwaves around the world are cutting yields of major producers by 60% or more in some cases. And of course it doesn't help when we then feed 36% of these dwindling crops to animals. Expect this to get worse as the climate emergency continues to be ignored by politicians, corporations and far too many voters.

The story that isn't being told is the working conditions in retail. It's always been a hard, low-paying job, where you're on your feet constantly, being encouraged to work off the clock, etc. They may no longer encourage you to work off the clock, they've just raised work expectations to unsustainable levels. Let's say I work for one of the 2 companies that was attempting to merge. Pay was belatedly raised during the pandemic to bring us on par with other retailers, say around $15/hr. For that sop, the worker is now micromanaged to death, right up to store leadership. Everyone is under so much pressure to produce according to this timetable, filing reports every day, *and* scrambling to do the regular work. Demand never goes down, and it's ignored, people only mention the prices. We have yo pay those prices too. Every day is exhausting and stressful in the extreme. I'm not asking for sympathy; I hear a lot of "If you're unhappy, change jobs," as if it were that simple. Hard work isn't the issue. Brain power isn't the issue. I've seen investigative reporting on Starbucks, which is honestly a relatively easy (less physically demanding) job, and Amazon, which is closer to what we face. No one gets breaks, a lot of us have to eat a granola bar or similar on the run, skipping sitting down to lunch, because of the whip-cracking mindset. We're well on the way to being forced to pee in cups, like Amazon drivers and warehouse workers.

I TOOK the "Food Inc." Advice over a decade ago; I vote with my food dollars. I buy only Organic and now, even Walmart has Vegan and Organic food available. 🎉❤

As a retired industry executive; lack of competition of food processors and grocery chains is a very strong driver. I worked for one of the two companies that control most of a food stable category and they used to encourage each other to raise prices as well as line the pockets of top management. Meat has fewer companies now. Brands live on but ownership and control have consolidated and allowed prices to increase while helping manufacturers to control their costs.

It’s also grocery stores….,many have increased margins from around 3% to 7%

Quite contrary to common belief, offer and demand does not determine price in retail. Instead prices are determined, by the buyer's ability to pay. Clear example are prescription drugs, some are available in e.g. 100mg, 50mg and 25mg doses yet all three of them cost more or less the same. So it is not the "effort" to manufacture the drug, but the patient/ insurance/ medicare ability to pay. Sellers raise prices because they can... after all everybody is doing it and the price increases exhibit a positive feedback mechanism. It only ends when consumers/ patients do punish those who engage in price gouging.

Every citizen should have to watch this. Thanks for putting it out into the world.

This is my first time watching a coffee klatch all the way through--you and Heather were great, as usual, but Michael Pollen is THE MAN and I listen enraptured whenever he speaks. I have already shared this video and will do so again and again.

Corporate America sticking it to us!

When you have high fuel prices, which the oil companies control the supply and demand throughout the world, it raises prices for anything you can think of. The processors have taken over and up the prices to beyond what most shoppers would expect to pay. We all need to eat, and they know it. So they set the prices without any worry, so we are living with the prices that will never change no matter who is President, or Congress 😊

In 1988 I turned 18 and went grocery shopping for the first time as an adult. Remembering home ec class I went with coupons available almost everywhere in almost every city or town. I filled a shopping cart over the top for $14. $14 and coupons paid for a shopping piled high and heavy with food in 1988! Times have definitely changed.

We need that wealth tax also. The more money they make the more screwed we are. Buy used whenever you can. We gotta stop giving our money to these corporate giants

Every time I go grocery shopping, I remind myself of the old Little House on the Prairie series and how they used to buy MULTIPLE things with a penny. Now it costs multiple pennies to buy ONE thing. When a few collect and refuse to part with currency, it drives down the value of what remains in circulation. Our government refuses to face this wealth inequality. Edit: Our system should be set up like the Pythagorean Cup.

Thank you all! Bring back the Office of Price Control. That would shake up the oligarchs.

Thank you so much for this podcast. We stopped buying eggs and raise our own chickens for eggs. We found a local small farmer that we buy our beef from...one step at a time. Awareness is the first important step and you good people will open more eyes to the reality of our earth and our choices and the power we really have to make changes. We must not be victims but activists

I would argue that prices are not to expensive but the money should go to farmers instead og supermarkets. People should go support farmers and buy directly from the farm

What a great discussion. Thank you so much for having this enlightening guest. I have not heard other discussions tying antitrust with ag (or other) production and the disatisfaction of the electorate. Also appreciate hearing about the change in standard pursued by the current administration.

I used to be able to afford certain kinds of "poor people" food and now even oatmeal and potatoes cost too much!

i am on Vancouver Island Canada ina farming community, since covid I built a 24 bed garden, have all the veg i need and sell or give away the balance, i ALSO BRING MY EXC ESS VEG TO MY NEIGHBOUR WHO USES IT TO D=FEED HIS CHICKENS i THEN GET HIS EGGS AND THEY ARE FRESH AND BEAUTIFUL. SO NOURISHING. I live on the ocean , catch fish, see my neighbours for beef and pork and chickens, I rarely go to the thieving grocery stores, except when i NEED SOME BASICS OR INEXPENSIVE MEATS FOR MY DOG. The greed in Canada and the USA is outrageous and one day there will be a rise from the people when they can no longer eat or shelte rthemselves, Many people say oh th egood old days well that is now comng true, I am so grateful to have been able to grow up from the 50's 60's 70's and 80's that we a more reasonable time. Michael Poland is a wise man sharng such wisdom certainly helps some. Thank you

It's "the grocery game". It's the same in Canada very little competition. This is a great video, informative. One big thing that gets overlooked is that the food we grow in North America is sold globally, bid on and sold to the highest bidder worldwide. We used to only sell our excess to the rest of the world. It may only be a small percentage of the overall problem. Greedflation is the biggest problem, and not enough ethics classes in the business education system. 😢

I look forward every week to Coffee Klatch

I was just in Italy and found the price of coffee in a grocery store to be $6-7 a pound versus what I pay in USA at around $12-16 a pound. Just one example, there were plenty of others and I was a bit shocked.

Love Bernie! He's a down to earth man! ❤

Instead of trying to impeach anyone, congress should be investigating these companies that are price gouging.

Quality content like this stands out in the new wasteland. Carry on! Much appreciated.

Grocers have kept prices high since Covid-19 by ordering less and letting consumers believe less food and consumables is available-Covid-19 and greed is to blame.

Such a timely and apropos conversation. So many relevant topics covered, food prices skyrocketing, disparity of incomes, producers of food being hammered by big Agra. Can Michael run for President please?

The worst part is that once they go up, they may stay at that price, but they almost never go back down again. We just get used to factoring the higher price into our budgets.

Oop, shout out to Jersey for the Rutgers tomatoes 🤘, my seeds are ten years old and still sprouted...very delicious!

I learned how to make sauerkraut from Mr. Pollan on the PBS DVD FOOD FORWARD.

Thank you Robert for this interview it was very informative. 👍🏾

Oil price is the top influence on gasoline/diesel prices. Yet in the past when oil was around $80 per barrel, gas was half the price it is today. So we have to figure out who is making all the profit? Refiners, distributors, retailers - someone there is making huge profits.

I voted for Bernie twice. Our country would be so much better right now, if the DNC had read the room. Hillary screamed elitist, while Bernie was listening to the people. Bernie would have beat Chump.

The farm subsidies go to millionaires with slave shacks out back (a horizon to horizon apple farm I drove by is building more as of last year) not small farmers struggling to survive.

Why doesn't mainstream media report on this situation?

Sadly, voting with your fork isn’t a luxury that’s afforded to “consumers” of the poor persuasion

Consumers can buy more local, prepare basic healthy foods, avoid ultra processed, move away from animal protein, buy store brands, limit unhealthy drinks and snacks. Many ways to spend less and benefit health-wise.

Ceos were 1000 times more talented in the 1960s than they are now. Its a myth that these people deserve their pay.

General Mills, the company that makes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. 2019 Q1 Net earnings attributable to General Mills $392.3 million 2024 Q1 Net earnings attributable to General Mills $673.5 This is why a box of cereal cost $8.

I could have eaten the raccoon in coop I killed defending my 13 remaining hens. Just well done to avoid trichinosis. I’ve gotten 4 kids through college with at least 25 fresh roadkill deer. Seed starter began weeks ago. Almost 2Ac in Historic Lutherville for $150k in ‘95. You can get 60g protein, 1/2# meat from each squirrel I would’ve loved to have at JHU ‘85 for free rather than mackerel $0.85/# or chicken livers $1/5#. My knowledge + abilities are my richness. Oh ya, my MD is UWSoM’89.