Survey says food prices have fallen slightly

Iowans are paying a little less for their groceries lately, according to the latest “market basket” survey by the Farm Bureau. Dave Miller, commodity affairs director for the Iowa Farm Bureau, says the overall price for the basic grocery items fell by almost a dollar.The survey finds the price of 16 basic grocery items fell 99-cents during the latest quarter to 38-dollars-35-cents. Miller says several food items saw sizable drops in price during the past three months.Potatoes, toasted oats cereal, chicken, eggs, pork chops and ground beef all dropped in price. Some of the staples that were more costly on the new survey include: cheese, bacon, bread and apples. Milk prices dropped — 37-cents a gallon — though Miller says at three-50 a gallon, milk is still much higher in price than it was a year ago. He says milk prices should continue to fall as milk production in Iowa is on the rise.Miller says Iowa ranks number-12 in the U.S. for milk production with about three-thousand dairy farmers in the state producing nearly four-billion pounds of milk a year.