Business: Why Food Prices Are Climbing

With herds down, the consumer's beef mil rise

Although food takes a declining share of U.S. family budgets these days, and the Government's consumer price index has been revised to reflect that trend (TIME, March 13), food-price increases are still the most visible and annoying variety of inflation to millions of consumers. Shoppers' beefs will soon get even louder. Last week the Government reported that the February Wholesale Price Index for finished goods, which foreshadows retail prices, jumped at an annual rate of 14%, nearly double the January rise and the biggest monthly leap since November 1974. Food, which did more than...