Cost of living: Real reason supermarket prices are skyrocketing

What links Russia's invasion of Ukraine with your soaring grocery bill? Gas. And the fertilisers it produces. Australia's National Food Supply Chain Alliance late last year forecast a further 8 per cent increase in local food prices over 2023. Now the heads of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Food Program (WFP), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have together warned of "an unprecedented shock to the global food system, with the most vulnerable hit the hardest". It's not an unexpected outcome. Russian powerbroker Dmitry Medvedev declared food to be Moscow's "silent…