TIPS FOR TAMING RISING GROCERY PRICES, plus some perspective: “Food prices have actually been fairly stable for more than a decade. According to the latest Department of Agriculture figures (from 2006), American households spend less than 6 percent of their income on food — that’s less than in any other country.”

UPDATE: Various readers dispute that six percent figure. Well, Steven Malanga says this: “In 1984 the average family spent 9.3 percent of its after-tax income on food at home, but by 2006 (the latest year statistics are available) that percentage had fallen to just 5.9 percent of after-tax income.” That’s a Bureau of Labor Statistics number. On the other hand, this USDA figure is 9.5 percent for 2004. I assume different measurement techniques account for the difference, but I have no idea how to determine which is more accurate.