Price inflation for food has not been 48%, but less than 5%, in the U.S.

"Overall, food prices rose nearly 5 percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means a pound of coffee, on average, cost 57 cents more at year's end than in 2006. A 12-ounce can of frozen, concentrated orange juice now averages $2.53 — a 67-cent increase in just two years.

And a carton of grade A, large eggs will set you back $2.17. That's an increase of nearly $1 since February, 2006." http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoh0EcX58dSG8oW_xU6nUxcwRfjAD8VOHOIG0

At the U.S. federal minimum wage, a can of orange juice and a dozen large eggs cost less than an hour's work. Food prices have been lagging behind general inflation for decades. Remember what a movie ticket cost when you were a kid? How much has that gone up? What about a ticket to a baseball game? What about the cost of a pair of sneakers? Remember what a house cost in the 1960s? Compare house price inflation to the inflation in the price of eggs and milk. In the U.S. (and I am NOT talking about any other country when I say this), food price inflation has been low, not high.

It would be even lower if we weren't distoring the market with ethanol subsidies.

Kent