I agree that food prices are a good indicator. On the other hand, there have been tremendous technical advancements decreasing the food production costs during the past years and decades. Thus, looking only at food prices underestimates the real inflation, which is much higher.
Unfortunately, the contributors to these efficiency increases are often not really acknowledged because their contribution is eaten up by inflation. In the public perception the food prices just keep on increasing and the producers are being blamed.
One of the distortions from fiat money...
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The advancements in the ag sector are butting up against physical limitations of productivity per unit of sunlight. Monoculture grain production has been essentially maxed out for decades planting "fence row to fence row" since the Earl Butz days of the USDA. Most improvements have actually been in the realm of labor efficiency, which further kills rural communities already destroyed by big ag policies. These costs have transitioned from being labor costs to technological and machinery expenses.
Isn't it a good thing to free up labor for more creative work? I remember times when kids had to work on the field and could not attend school. Still happens in many countries.
Communities can be formed or strengthened in other ways, without requiring people to work on a field.
I am curious where you see the productivity limit in terms of sunlight, considering that only a very small fraction of the light energy actually ends up in the product. Is that really the limiting factor? Afaik yields per hectare have been going up more or less constantly.
