As Americans continue to feel the pain at the pump, new Labor Department numbers out today show the far-reaching effect high fuel costs have on the average American. According to the Producer Price Index, food prices rose 3.9 percent last month. This increase marks the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Like it or not, high gasoline prices make everything more expensive – it costs more to drive to work, more to operate a business and more to buy groceries. This increase should serve as a stark reminder to the American people of why we need to be producing American energy here at home rather than importing it from unstable foreign nations.