Yes, I am serious. The media have no intention of allowing the data to get in the way of their bad economy stories. So now that food prices have pretty much stopped rising, the Guardian is coming to the rescue to tell readers how they can cope with rising food prices.

Here’s the picture on food prices over the last five years.

As can be seen, food prices did rise rapidly in 2021 and 2022, but then slowed sharply. In the last year and a half, they have risen by a total of just over one percent. This might have been a reasonable piece for the Guardian to have run in January of 2023, it does not make sense to run it now.