Americans still love hamburgers and French fries, but they sure are a lot more expensive than they once were.  In fact, as you will see below, the price of ground beef in the U.S. has risen 16.2 percent during the last 12 months.  No matter how you look at that number, it is terrible.  Of course just about everything else at the grocery store has been getting more expensive too.  These days, a shopping cart full of food is a major expense for most American families.  Meanwhile, the global food crisis just continues to intensify.  According to a recent report from the UN's World Food Program, global hunger is "skyrocketing"…

Today, global hunger is skyrocketing as 343 million people face severe food insecurity, driven by an unrelenting wave of global crises including conflict, economic instability, and climate-related emergencies. In 2025, WFP's operations are focused on supporting just over one-third of those in need – roughly 123 million of the world's hungriest people – nearly half of whom (58 million) are at imminent risk of losing access to food assistance.

Last year, WFP teams helped feed more than 120 million people in 80 countries, delivering urgent food aid to hunger hot spots and frontline crises around the world.

In 2023, CNN told us that we were in the midst of "the worst food crisis in modern history".

If global hunger has been "skyrocketing" since that time, what are we facing now?

For those of us that live in the United States, the good news is that there is still plenty of food in the stores.

But it sure does cost a lot more than it once did.

According to the New York Times, the price of ground beef in the U.S. has risen 16.2 percent over the past 12 months…

Ground beef was at its highest average price on record in May at $5.98 a pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That cost was 16.2 percent higher than 12 months earlier. Other cuts of beef, including sirloin steaks and chuck roast, also reached record highs in the first half of 2025.