Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as inflation remains a big issue in the presidential race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is zeroing in on high food prices as her campaign previews an economic policy speech that she will give in North Carolina on Friday, promising to push for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries.

Harris is putting particular emphasis on rising meat prices, which she says account for a large part of rising grocery bills.

Year-over-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years. But many in the United States are struggling with food prices, which remain 21% above where they were three years ago. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been pointing to inflation as a key failing of the Biden administration and its energy policies.

Harris is putting an emphasis on food prices even in addition to drug costs, the focus of an event Thursday with President Joe Biden in Maryland.

They are announcing that drug price negotiations will knock hundreds of dollars — in some cases thousands — off the list prices of 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs.

Biden has undertaken his own efforts to contain rising food prices, including creating a “competition council” that tried to reduce costs by increasing competition within the meat industry, part of a broader effort to show his administration is trying to combat inflation.

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