Grocery prices can come down without having general deflation. The commodities that form the backbone of our food supply—corn, soy, wheat, etc—are all at their lowest prices in years. That *should* trickle down to the consumer in the form of lowered prices for many goods, save for the collusion amongst Big Food corporations. Maybe RFK can bust them up.
Once again with feeling.
About 40% of the corn crop in the United States is used to produce ethanol and related co-products.
On average, the United States exports about 49% of its soybean production.
Yes, we do eat a lot of beef (and dairy products), drink a lot of coca-cola, but if we look at your metaphor, "backbone" sounds cool but corn/soy/wheat still don't comprise a majority of the American diet, even when you consider them as inputs in terms of animal feed.
And while corn/soy/wheat aren't very sticky due to the fact they aren't labor intensive - beef, eggs, milk are very labor intensive - and labor costs are extremely sticky. The percentage of the price of a burger has very little to do with the corn the cow ate - and more to do with shipping, processing, refrigeration, retail costs.