@thendrix @lain @Moon that is a worrying development. To be fair it's about animal products, but it does move in the direction where plants could be next ("omg bad lettuce! ban gardening!").

The talk about food-inflation always made me think "that's just general inflation", because food prices cannot spiral out of control in a free market, because more people will grow food as it becomes more profitable to be a farmer, putting a ceiling on prices (in terms of purchasing power, not dollars, as dollars can go up forever as money printer go brrrr).

Part of why cattle products are going up so much is because it is more regulated, compared to chicken. IIRC, the regulation is that if you butcher anything larger than a chicken, you have you employ a full-time inspector, whom you provide with his own office, which is in its own room, with a dedicated bathroom solely for that office. This is why small butchers don't exist. A small business can't afford that, but a factory-farm can.

There are only two ways that food prices spiral out of control: becoming a warzone, and socialism. If the government puts price controls on food, cracks down on "hoarding" food, or bans growing food, those are the only ways that a food crisis can be caused (or war).