This is Vanese Ferguson with Coffee Talk.  I truly don’t know how a family making the average wage of $74,200 can buy any significant amount of meat.  We interviewed a chef instructor who suggested buying the more humble cuts of meat.  Well, I don’t know about you but with the price of hamburger, or a blade roast or chicken thighs, I’d hardly call that humble.  I mean – remember back when eggs were under, or at least, around three bucks a carton?  Weren’t those the good old days?  But the good old days really aren’t that long ago. According to Trading Economics the cost of food in Canada increased 6.20 percent in December of last year. over the same month the prior year.  And food inflation in Canada averaged 3.90 percent from 1951 until 2025.  I know we’ve often reported on food price inflation but percentages, I don’t think, bring the stark reality to mind as comparing actual prices between before extreme food inflation, and now.  Honestly, I stockpile when anything comes on sale and then just have to remember to take something out to thaw hopefully with a plan in place as to what I’m going to do with it.  I saw a post on X that blamed food inflation on an oligopoly (is that a word?) of three major grocery chains including Loblaws, Sobey’s and Metro.  I don’t know if that’s accurate, but thinking about the bread price fixing, of all things, maybe there is merit in the thought. Regardless I do know I’ll be flyer shopping this weekend.