Yes it has gone up a bit, but not nearly to the extent processed shit has.

This is a great point. Big corporations always look to generate “value” out of nothing, and processed foods are a great example. And when they can take advantage of “inflation” (LOL) to pad their margins, they will go nuts. When margins are lower and the percentage of “value add” is lower, there is much less price to inflate. So to speak.

You could take an ingredient like potatoes, cook them and add flavoring and voila, huge markup. The potatoes only went up 1% 2022-2023 but the average price of a 16oz bag of potato chips went up 27% over roughly the same period.