What I’m pondering now:

Reading the news lately, it’s hard to get a handle on exactly what’s happening with supermarket food costs. Prices for dairy, meat, fruits, vegetables and bread have all fallen steadily over the past eight months, according to a Labor Department‘s price index of food sold to be eaten at home – but only by a total of 1 percent. (Click here for that complete report.)

However, over at the Agriculture Department, experts are saying prices for “food at home,” a category that includes purchases at grocery stores, convenience stores and farmers’ markets, will rise 2 to 3 percent this year, beginning as the economy recovers. Last year, the department said, prices for food at home rose 6.4 percent, the highest jump in nearly 20 years.

And an economist for Wells Fargo told the New York Times that the energy savings grocers got so far this year has largely played out, and therefore prices will start to rise. (Click here for this full report.)

My take on all of this? If you have the available cash, it might be a good time to stock up on groceries and foods you can feasibly stockpile. That way you can take advantage of the price dips before the tab starts ticking upward again.

What are the prices doing at your supermarket? Up, down or sideways? Do you have any experiences with stockpiling? Please tell us by clicking here!

Do America's farm prices cause America's health care crisis? Michael Pollan says yes.

Michael Pollan, the “In Defense of Food” guy, wrote a provocative op-ed piece in last week’s New York Times tying America’s health care crisis to farm policies and the political near-impossibility of agricultural reform. (Click here.)

“We’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western diet,” Pollan wrote. “One recent study estimated that 30 percent of the increase in health care spending over the past 20 years could be attributed to the soaring rate of obesity, a condition that now accounts for nearly a tenth of all spending on health care. But so far, food system reform has not figured in the national conversation about health care reform.”

As the government continues to subsidize corn, it stays cheap and thus more people develop Type 2 diabetes from an over- consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, Pollan says.

“Why the disconnect?’’ Polan asks. “Probably because reforming the food system is politically even more difficult than reforming the health care system.”

I’ve never quite realized the cost of my health insurance is tied to farm policies, have you? Or am I interpreting Pollan’s treatise all wrong? Please click here to share your stories and comments!

Finally, a death knell for the French fry?

I can’t decide if my favorite guilty pleasure is chocolate or French fries, but after a report in today’s Chicago Tribune, I might have just had my mind made up for me. Turns out that eating French fries might cause cancer. (Click here.)

Starchy fried foods can contain a chemical called acrylamide that is quietly raising concern as a potential human carcinogen. Research has shown that the chemical can cause tumors and neurological problems in lab animals. A natural byproduct of cooking high-carbohydrate foods at high temperatures, acrylamide also turns up in a wide variety of roasted and baked foods, including breakfast cereal, baby food, bread and crackers.

Federal governing bodies in the U.S., Canada and Europe are stepping up efforts to deal with the chemical, the Tribune report said, and food-industry chemists already are aggressively pursuing ways to reduce it in their products.

How do YOU navigate this confusing world of toxic foods? Please share your tips and concerns by clicking here!