CPI for all items rises 0.2% as gasoline and shelter prices rise; food prices decline

[fasttense]

6. Because they switch up the basket of food when estimating inflation

what you are getting with the CPI with food is an estimate of what it costs to survive and NOT an estimate of inflation in food prices. See when steak goes up they look at hamburger (just an example) for their basket to estimate food CPI. So if you can only eat steak or you refuse to eat beans 7 times a week, then you will see a much larger inflation in food prices than what the CPI reports.

I'm not sure what part of the country you live in, but here in TN watermelons and berries have NOT come in yet. So the huge price for those items here is due to transportation and packaging costs and not necessarily inflation. Out of season fruit always costs more unless China or parts of South America are doing a food dump to drive out competition. (Our grocery stores were flooded with strawberries last year. I think they may have been from China or South America but I can't say for sure. But my local grown, chemical free, strawberries sold for 25% less because of the dumping.) Of course we never have oranges in season in my part of the country so I rarely buy them.

But if you want a fair price for in-season, local grown, chemical free food I would recommend you find a medium to small farmer's market in your area. You can find bargains there especially if you haggle with the farmer near closing time. I know I would rather sell my produce at half price than have to take it home and watch it rot or give it away. I recommend medium to small markets because a lot of the larger farmer's markets are being taken over by huge industrial farmers (pretending to be small), and non-farmer wholesalers and they put premium prices on their chemical laden crops.