Food prices have risen more quickly than at any time in the past 20 years in a burst of inflation that has Minnesota shoppers scaling back on luxuries like chocolate and shrimp while seeking out more ways to defend the family budget. High oil prices, the push for alternative fuels and global demand for food are driving the trend.

“I’ve just started to think about using coupons,” said Taryn Reed, a Minneapolis mother and sometimes Kowalski’s shopper, who says she has already begun shopping at supercenters more often and buying store brands.

Faced with $8-a-gallon organic milk and more than $2 for a dozen large eggs, consumers are changing their behavior and setting off a broad, macroeconomic shift in the way we feed ourselves, affecting the economy, our lifestyles, our diet and food habits.

Coupon use is growing for the first time in 16 years. Food shelf visits are up. We eat in more often. We eat less steak and more chicken and take fewer trips to the grocery store. We buy more store brands and, at the extreme end of things, shop at so-called “salvage” grocery stores that stock their shelves with expired or soon-to-expire stock that’s quietly pawned off by mainstream grocers.

And that’s just so far.

These changes could accelerate if unemployment numbers rise, said George John, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

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