It appears grocery buyers in the UK won't be the only ones to notice an increase in their weekly food bills. Tyson Foods Inc. recently announced they will be raising the prices of their food, notably chicken and beef which make up 78 per cent of the company's total sales.

The reasons are the same for the cost increases across the ocean: a significant demand for corn-based ethanol and a global demand for chicken and pork as developing countries are seeing an improved standard of living. Tyson upped its fiscal 2008 grain-cost forecast to over $500 million, an increase of 67 per cent from the outlook projected last November, and as a result, the company announced that due to the unpredictability of the market, they would no longer offer financial forecasts.

"We have no other choice but to raise prices substantially," CEO Richard Bond said in a conference call. "We are raising prices because we can't absorb these costs. Despite concerns about the economy, people have to eat, and they will continue to eat protein."

First fuel costs went through the roof and now food. Technically we can survive without chicken and without gassing up our cards, but Bond is right: people could do without either, but won't. And it seems we'll be paying the ultimate price to keep our own standard of living unchanged.

» CNN Money