The American Farm Bureau Federation recently published the results of a new marketplace survey that discovered that the cost of this year's Independence Day celebration is 17% more expensive than last year.

The prices of a number of food items have gone up substantially since 2021, culminating a holiday celebration this summer that will hit Americans' wallets a bit harder.

“Despite higher food prices, the supply chain disruptions and inflation have made farm supplies more expensive; like consumers, farmers are price-takers not price-makers. Bottom line, in many cases the higher prices farmers are being paid aren’t covering the increase in their farm expenses. The cost of fuel is up and fertilizer prices have tripled,” American Farm Bureau Federation Chief Economist Roger Cryan said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation's survey reviewed the cost of favorites such as hamburgers, pork chops, lemonade and potato salad, and showed that a Fourth of July cookout this year would cost almost $70, which marks a 17% increase since 2021. Analysis of the findings pointed to growing levels of inflation and ongoing supply chain challenges. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the Consumer Price Index, a common measure of inflation, was at 8.6% year-over-year in May of 2022. 

This is the biggest 12-month increase in greater than 40 years. Food prices were discovered to be at 10.1% inflation, with food at home even worse at 11.9%. As inflation continues to make the cost of everyday goods more costly in the United States, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center discovered that Arizona had the 15th highest cost of living in the nation for the first quarter of 2022.

Sen. Ted Cruz took the news and attributed it to the Biden administration. In a tweet, he compared the $10.18 increase for this year's Fourth of July cookout to a tweet from The White House's Twitter account last summer, celebrating a smaller 16-cent decrease in the cost of a Fourth of July celebration. The news comes as an increasing number of Americans think that the United States is moving in the wrong direction.

A recent survey from the AP and NORC found that 85% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, and 79% believe the economy is poor. More than two-thirds of Democrats agree about the status of the economy and almost 8 in 10 Democrats agree about the negative direction of the country.