Tractors, Trains, Trucks and Thanksgiving

When you eat your Thanksgiving meal this year, you know it costs way more today than it did a year ago. On that matter, everything you ate this year cost more than it did the year before. Some may put the blame on the “supply chain”, higher labor costs, a faraway war or some other excuse, but the biggest reason that your food (and mostly everything else) costs so much more is the cost of diesel fuel.

You may or may not have noticed when you fill your gas tank, that the sign above actually tells you all you need to know about the direction of what the cost of your goods will be going forward. Diesel fuel is currently priced well over $5 a gallon and has been north of $6 most of 2022.

If you think it’s not important because your vehicle doesn’t use it, you are dead wrong.

Down at the farms, the tractors used to harvest the fields use diesel fuel along with the trucks and railroad engines that move your food to be processed and transported to your grocery stores. Transportation costs are 25-45% of the cost of every good or food item you consume.

 If the price of diesel is still high next year, your Thanksgiving and everything else will cost you and your family more than what you have been paying in the past. My hope is that next year diesel fuel is headed to lower prices so things we buy do as well, and our dollar can go a lot further. So next time you fill up your gas tank, look up at that sign and you will know what Thanksgiving, or anything else for that matter, will cost you next year.

Wishing you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving!