Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as inflation remains a big issue in the presidential race

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is taking aim at high food prices in her campaign, previewing her economic policy speech in North Carolina on Friday, in which she promises to advocate for a federal ban on overpricing of groceries.

Harris places particular emphasis on rising meat prices, which she says account for a large portion of rising grocery bills.

Year-on-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years. But many in the United States are struggling with food prices, which are still 21% higher than they were three years ago. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has pointed to inflation as a key failure of the Biden administration and its energy policies.

Harris is highlighting food prices, even beyond the cost of medicine, the focus of an official event Thursday with President Joe Biden in Maryland. It will be her first joint speaking engagement with Biden since replacing him at the top of the Democratic ticket.

They announce that drug price negotiations will cut hundreds of dollars – in some cases thousands – off the list prices of 10 Medicare plans most popular and most expensive medicines.

Biden has his own efforts to curb rising food pricesincluding the creation of a “competition board” that sought to reduce costs by increasing competition within the meat industry, as part of a broader effort to show his administration is trying fight inflation.

When asked Thursday if he was concerned that Harris would distance himself from his economic record, Biden told reporters, “She’s not going to do that.”

Americans are more likely to trust Trump than Harris when it comes to handling the economy, but the difference is small: 45% say Trump is better positioned to manage the economy, while 38% say the same of Harris. About 1 in 10 trust neither Harris nor Trump to better manage the economy, according to the latest The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

Consumer sentiment surveys show that high prices remain a persistent source of frustration for shoppers, particularly among lower-income Americans, even as inflation has cooled. Overall prices are about 21% higher than they were before the pandemic, with grocery prices being one of the most visible examples of that structural shift toward higher costs.

At the same time, average incomes have risen slightly more, boosting spending even as the outlook for the US economy remains bleak.

Some meat prices, however, have risen even more than overall inflation: Beef prices have risen nearly 33% in the four and a half years since the pandemic began, while chicken prices have risen 31%. Pork is 21% more expensive, according to government data.

Supply disruptions during the pandemic were one reason prices rose. Many meatpacking plants Closed temporarily following COVID-19 outbreaks among their employees.

But the Biden administration argues that corporate consolidation in the meatpacking industry has played a larger role, allowing a small number of companies to raise prices more than their input costs.

Four major companies control 55%-85% of the beef, chicken and poultry market, the White House said in late 2021, including Tyson and JBS. JBS ultimately paid out millions of dollars settlements in lawsuits accusing them of price fixing, though they did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the settlements.

Some economists have argued that large companies in the food and consumer goods sector, including PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble took advantage of the disruptions caused by the pandemic to raise prices more than the cost of inputs, significantly increasing profits.

Economist Isabella Weber of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst called it “seller inflation,” while others have more accurately called it “greedflation.”

In an influential paperWeber wrote that “publicly reported supply chain bottlenecks” can “create legitimacy for price increases” and “build consumer acceptance to pay higher prices.”

Yet Harris’ proposals on predatory pricing come as there is some evidence that so-called “seller inflation” is slowing. Consumers are increasingly distinctive, and forgo some of the more expensive purchases while looking for cheaper alternatives. Walmart on thursday announced strong sales figures this summer as more consumers sought out the lower prices.

Food prices have risen by an average of just 1.1% nationwide over the past 12 months, in line with pre-pandemic increases, the government said on Wednesday.

The meat industry has been battling accusations of excessive pricing and price fixing for years, with major players denying that extreme consolidation in the sector is the cause of the high prices.

At a Congressional hearing two years ago, the CEOs of the four companies that control nearly the entire beef market — Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — argued that rising feed and fuel costs, coupled with persistent labor shortages and the forces of supply and demand, were driving the higher prices, not anticompetitive behavior.

Additionally, there have been significant disruptions to meat production during the pandemic, as COVID spread like wildfire through meat plants, forcing temporary closures and extra safety measures. And the ongoing outbreak of avian influenza, which has led to the slaughter of more than 100 million birds since early 2022, has taken a toll on the poultry industry. Years of drought have limited the number of cattle raised across the country.

The industry’s defense is bolstered by its balance sheets, which generally show that costs have risen sharply in recent years, putting pressure on profits. This has prompted some companies, such as Tyson, to close some of their less efficient plants to cut costs.

Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, said: “The cost of raising the animal, the cost of turning it into meat and the cost of getting that meat to people is higher than it used to be.”

“Yes, consumers are seeing higher prices, but that doesn’t necessarily mean someone is ripping them off,” Tonsor said.

And he said that consolidation in the industry generally happened decades ago, so it’s harder to argue that it’s been a big factor in prices in recent years.

Beef, pork and chicken producers have all been accused of price-fixing by retailers, farmers and food distributors in a series of lawsuits in recent years. Tyson, JBS, Smithfield Foods, Purdue Farms and other major meat companies have collectively agreed to pay hundreds of millions to settle some of the lawsuits, though they have not admitted any wrongdoing.

And the allegations in those lawsuits are generally all based on things that were done years ago — long before the pandemic disrupted production and record inflation sent costs soaring.

Biden has previously suggested that increased competition in the meat industry would help lower food prices, and his administration offered $1 billion to help build and expand independent meatpacking plants. But it’s hard for small processing plants to make a meaningful difference in these markets dominated by a handful of large companies.

The head of the trade group Meat Institute, President and CEO Julie Anna Potts, said Thursday that Harris’ proposal will not solve the problem of inflation, which has driven up prices of everything.

“Consumers have been hit by high prices due to inflation on everything from services to rent to cars, not just at the grocery store,” Potts said. “A federal ban on predatory pricing does not address the real causes of inflation.”

The trade association cited a New York University study that found the average profit margin for food producers is about 6 percent. That’s significantly lower than profit margins in other industries, such as software and railroads, which have margins of more than 20 percent.

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AP Business reporters Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Chris Rugaber in Washington contributed.