Despite cereal being offered as a cost-saving way to eat, Lopez didn’t mention that leading cereal maker Kellogg’s has been singled out for price-gouging—raising its price per unit 17% in 2023, far above the inflation rate, thereby boosting the company’s profits in 2023 by a whopping 540% (Quartz, 2/27/24).

But “profits” is a word you won’t find in Lopez’s column. Corporate greed (FAIR.org, 4/21/22, 6/1/23; CounterSpin, 2/9/24) is conspicuously missing from his list of reasons that prices go up:

"Inflation is tied to rising labor costs, continued post-pandemic supply chain interruptions, avian flu and the impact of extreme weather—heat waves, wildfires and flooding—on global food production."

Rather than suggesting that consumers fill up on excess profits, Lopez could have encouraged his readers to participate in the upcoming three-month boycott of Kellogg’s products—organized under the hashtag #LetThemEatCereal