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15 Reasons Why Your Food Prices Are About To Start Soaring
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
Did you know that the U.S. state that produces the most vegetables is going through the worst drought it has ever experienced and that the size of the total U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been since 1951? Just the other day, a CBS News article boldly declared that "food prices soar as incomes stand still", but the truth is that this is only just the beginning. If the drought that has been devastating farmers and ranchers out west continues, we are going to see prices for meat, fruits and vegetables soar into the stratosphere. Already, the federal government has declared portions of 11 states to be "disaster areas", and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions.
Sadly, experts are telling us that things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). As you will read about below, one expert recently told National Geographic that throughout history it has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades. In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years. So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime.
This drought has gotten so bad that it is starting to get national attention. Barack Obama visited the Fresno region on Friday, and he declared that "this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where it's going to be a challenging situation for some time to come."
According to NBC News, businesses across the region are shutting down, large numbers of workers are leaving to search for other work, and things are already so bad that it "calls to mind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s"...
In the state's Central Valley — where nearly 40 percent of all jobs are tied to agriculture production and related processing — the pain has already trickled down. Businesses across a wide swath of the region have shuttered, casting countless workers adrift in a downturn that calls to mind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
If you will recall, there have been warnings that Dust Bowl conditions were going to return to the western half of the country for quite some time.
Now the mainstream media is finally starting to catch up.
And of course these extremely dry conditions are going to severely affect food prices. The following are 15 reasons why your food bill is going to start soaring...
#1 2013 was the driest year on record for the state of California, and 2014 has been exceptionally dry so far as well.
#2 According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 91.6 percent of the entire state of California is experiencing "severe to exceptional drought" even as you read this article.
#3 According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought.
#4 Celeste Cantu, the general manager for the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, says that this drought could have a "cataclysmic" impact on food prices...
Given that California is one of the largest agricultural regions in the world, the effects of any drought, never mind one that could last for centuries, are huge. About 80 percent of California's freshwater supply is used for agriculture. The cost of fruits and vegetables could soar, says Cantu. "There will be cataclysmic impacts."
#5 Mike Wade, the executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition, recently explained which crops he believes will be hit the hardest...
Hardest hit would be such annual row crops as tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, cantaloupes, garlic, peppers and corn. Wade said consumers can also expect higher prices and reduced selection at grocery stores, particularly for products such as almonds, raisins, walnuts and olives.
#6 As I discussed in a previous article, the rest of the nation is extremely dependent on the fruits and vegetables grown in California. Just consider the following statistics regarding what percentage of our produce is grown in the state...
-99 percent of the artichokes
-44 percent of asparagus
-two-thirds of carrots
-half of bell peppers
-89 percent of cauliflower
-94 percent of broccoli
-95 percent of celery
-90 percent of the leaf lettuce
-83 percent of Romaine lettuce
-83 percent of fresh spinach
-a third of the fresh tomatoes
-86 percent of lemons
-90 percent of avocados
-84 percent of peaches
-88 percent of fresh strawberries
-97 percent of fresh plums
#7 Of course it isn't just agriculture which will be affected by this drought. Just consider this chilling statement by Tim Quinn, the executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies...
"There are places in California that if we don’t do something about it, tens of thousands of people could turn on their water faucets and nothing would come out."
#8 The Sierra Nevada snowpack is only about 15 percent of what it normally is. As the New York Times recently explained, this is going to be absolutely devastating for Californians when the warmer months arrive...
Experts offer dire warnings. The current drought has already eclipsed previous water crises, like the one in 1977, which a meteorologist friend, translating into language we understand as historians, likened to the “Great Depression” of droughts. Most Californians depend on the Sierra Nevada for their water supply, but the snowpack there was just 15 percent of normal in early February.
#9 The underground aquifers that so many California farmers depend upon are being drained at a staggering rate...
Pumping from aquifers is so intense that the ground in parts of the valley is sinking about a foot a year. Once aquifers compress, they can never fill with water again.
It’s no surprise Tom Willey wakes every morning with a lump in his throat. When we ask which farmers will survive the summer, he responds quite simply: those who dig the deepest and pump the hardest.
#10 According to an expert interviewed by National Geographic, the current drought in the state of California could potentially last for 200 years or more as some mega-droughts in the region have done in the past...
California is experiencing its worst drought since record-keeping began in the mid 19th century, and scientists say this may be just the beginning. B. Lynn Ingram, a paleoclimatologist at the University of California at Berkeley, thinks that California needs to brace itself for a megadrought—one that could last for 200 years or more.
#11 Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurting huge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast...
The western United States has been in a drought that has been building for more than a decade, according to climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Ranchers in the West are selling off their livestock," Patzert said. "Farmers all over the Southwest, from Texas to Oregon, are fallowing in their fields because of a lack of water. For farmers and ranchers, this is a painful drought.”
#12 The size of the U.S. cattle herd has been shrinking for seven years in a row, and it is now the smallest that it has been since 1951. But our population has more than doubled since then.
#13 Extremely unusual weather patterns are playing havoc with crops all over the planet right now. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Lizzie Bennett...
Peru, Venezuela, and Bolivia have experienced rainfall heavy enough to flood fields and rot crops where they stand. Volcanic eruptions in Ecuador are also creating problems due to cattle ingesting ash with their feed leading to a slow and painful death.
Parts of Australia have been in drought for years affecting cattle and agricultural production.
Rice production in China has been affected by record low temperatures.
Large parts of the UK are underwater, and much of that water is sea water which is poisoning the soil. So wet is the UK that groundwater is so high it is actually coming out of the ground and adding to the water from rivers and the sea. With the official assessment being that groundwater flooding will continue until MAY, and that’s if it doesn’t rain again between now and then. The River Thames is 65 feet higher than normal in some areas, flooding town after town as it heads to the sea.
#14 As food prices rise, our incomes are staying about the same. The following is from a CBS News article entitled "Food prices soar as incomes stand still"...
While the government says prices are up 6.4 percent since 2011, chicken is up 18.4 percent, ground beef is up 16.8 percent and bacon has skyrocketed up 22.8 percent, making it a holiday when it's on sale.
#15 As I have written about previously, median household income has fallen for five years in a row. So average Americans are going to have to make their food budgets stretch more than they ever have before as this drought drags on.
If the drought does continue to get worse, small agricultural towns all over California are going to die off.
For instance, consider what is already happening to the little town of Mendota...
The farms in and around Mendota are dying of thirst. The signs are everywhere. Orchards with trees lying on their sides, as if shot. Former farm fields given over to tumbleweeds. Land and cattle for sale, cheap.
Large numbers of agricultural workers continue to hang on, hoping that somehow there will be enough work for them. But as Evelyn Nieves recently observed, panic is starting to set in...
Off-season, by mid-February, idled workers are clearly anxious. Farmworkers and everyone else who waits out the winter for work (truckers, diesel providers, packing suppliers and the like) are nearing the end of the savings they squirrel away during the season. The season starts again in March, April at the latest, but no one knows who will get work when the season begins, or how much.
People are scared, panicked even.
I did not write this article so that you would panic.
Yes, incredibly hard times are coming. If you will recall, the 1930s were also a time when the United States experienced extraordinarily dry weather conditions and a tremendous amount of financial turmoil. We could very well be entering a similar time period.
Worrying about this drought is not going to change anything. Instead of worrying, we should all be doing what we can to store some things up while food is still relatively cheap. Our grandparents and our great-grandparents that lived during the days of the Great Depression knew the wisdom of having a well-stocked food pantry, and it would be wise to follow their examples.
Please share this article with as many people as you can. The United States has never faced anything like this during most of our lifetimes. We need to shake people out of their "normalcy bias" and get them to understand that big changes are coming.
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http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib-economic-information-bulletin/e... - there are 442 million acres of cropland in the USA. So 0.5 million acres are being idled; what percentage is that? Admittedly wheat/corn/soy land can't be immediately changed or is not suitable for tomatoes and artichokes; but is it truly a big scary thing that is happening, or is there some alarmism?
Personally I feel that TPTB are going to let CA rot, let Mexico take over in supplying agriculture (Wal Mart already has scads of Mexican and S. American foods in their stores).
Remember, a diet of potatoes, butter, whole milk, and oatmeal will give you all the nutrition you need.
"a diet of potatoes, butter, whole milk, and oatmeal will give you all the nutrition you need."
I think you'd get scurvey on this diet.
GYARRRR!
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2828/could-i-survive-on-nothing...
The milk,butter, and oatmeal fill in for what the potatoes lack.
Corn (nixtamalized,) beans, squash and red/green chile (peppers in general, actually) will go a long, long way, especially if you get a rare tidbit of meat.
A rare tidbit of meat, sort of like 'The Road' . . .
Are you one of the bad people?
I still lay in bed at night and wonder, "Did they eat the kid after the end of the movie?"
As abominably bad as the book (and presumably the movie also) was, I certainly hope so.
yep... oatmeal and cream for breakfast, mashed potatoes w/ red chiles for flavor for lunch and dinner... not much variety but it would do the trick...
oatmeal, powdered milk, potato flakes, dried chiles, and water... a guy could survive on that for quite a while
BULLISH FOR HOMEBUILDERS IN THE MIDWEST!!!!!
Are these experts the same twats that have been wrong about global warming for 25+ years?
According to NBC News.....LOL
That's what I said last week on this story.
Even if California did get rain, it's doubtful that we'd save it in reservoirs or use it for farms. (That's already been proven in the past few years.) No, the delta smelt must be saved at all costs -- even above the human toll.
El Nino starting later this year. Rain coming to California.
Always does, gotta hurry up and gather the tin-foil hat climate change dudes befor it rains and befor everybody figures out that the water in the resivors is being saved for some supposedly endangered minnow or bug or something.........
This endangered thing is a tool to manipulate people it does nothing for the actual critters that they claim to save....
If there *needs* to be government intervention in the market why don't they divert 1 month of QE into the farmer's market by building some desalination plants so they can water crops with radioactive water from the ocean
YOUR food prices, maybe.....not mine. Cows in pasture, chickens in pen, hogs in pen, catfish in ponds. Acre of garden, 2 greenhouses and an apple orchard. Been ready a long time.
YOUR food prices, maybe.....not mine. Cows in pasture, chickens in pen, hogs in pen, catfish in ponds. Acre of garden, 2 greenhouses and an apple orchard. Been ready a long time.
And .gov knows where you are. If you're lucky .gov will seize the place before the hordes get there.
15 reasons California shouldn't have an agrifulture industry. Gov't subsidy much?
Welfare for the rich and the poor and let's not forget how the banks and stores make out from food stamps.
The Farm Bill vs. America
They said, “Negotiators from both houses and both parties came together and hammered out a deal.”
They said, “This is how you get things done in Washington.”
There is some truth in this. But it’s more of a half truth. There absolutely is compromise in this thousand-page, trillion-dollar mess. But it’s not a compromise between House Republicans and Senate Democrats.
No, it’s collusion between both parties against the American people, it benefits the special interests at the expense of the national interest.
This bill does not demonstrate how to do things in Washington, but how to do things for Washington.
The final product before us is not just a legislative vehicle – it’s a legislative getaway car.
Good thing they just cut food stamps by 20% lol. I think they say a family of 4 can get by on something like $275 month? My fucking dogs and cats cost that much lmao.
Central planning at its best, save the snail darters and starve the people
This drought has gotten so bad that it is starting to get national attention. Barack Obama visited the Fresno region on Friday, and he declared that "this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where it's going to be a challenging situation for some time to come."
THEN THE FUCKSTICK WENT OUT AND PLAYED GOLF!
True story.....
FUCK YOU BARRY SOETERO - YOU CHEESE EATING FRAUD
<b>AND FUCK YOU TOO, O GRAND WIZARD!<b>
When is Obama goind to issue an Executive Order which freezes food prices?
A biblical shot across the bow.
If not a biblical shot across the bow it is at least a wake up call as to the kind of problems we will face in the future. Below is a list of the worlds ten most crucial problems counted down from "least to most crucial" Food shortages are on this list. Most of these are issues that center on our sustainability and long-term existance. Sadly, politicians do not deal well with such things leaving us without direction.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-worlds-10-worst-problems.html
"Politicians do not deal well with such things leaving us without direction"
The problem is in your post here, which is that people look to politicians for leadership. Actually, for all the talk about 'throw the bums out' people should realize that they are just reflections of the stupidity of so many people for gonig along with this stuff and how brainwashed they have become to believe in this PC do gooder bullshit and how they don't have time to worry about the unintended consequences of America's exports not being products nearly as much as FRNs and military to intervene abroad, so long as the bread and circuses continue.
Be in charge of your own life; there is no principal-agent issue when you are acting on your own behalf and not ceding sovereignty to bureaucrats.
A nation cannot continue ignoring God and prosper. Plain and simple. We kill thousands of babies daily and claim it is OUR RIGHT! We sanction abominable acts of sodomy and casually claim it is our rights!! We are about to witness God almighty’s judgment on this country, and ultimately this world. Give up the rights to yourself, and give them to Christ Jesus. It will be your only answer, shortly.
It is your only answer, now. God is ever forgiving, always just wanting His children to come to Him as He has given Himself for our sins.
Morality is not subjective. Trust in the Lord Jesus and fear nothing or no one but Him.
ON FORBES TODAY (google transalted)
http://www.google.com/translate?hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F...
Cattle herd has been shrinking for decades, because of the sunstitution of meats and expansion cycles of the herds. (save a save female young, breed the female, birth, raise newborn to slaughter). Poultry producers can out-respond even pork producers to a price signal from market. Beef will soon be a real luxury item, so enjoy.
Dairy producers in CA have been and continue to fail. Dairy products out west are going to shock consumers.
Fresh vegetable production will be interesting to watch the response. Anyone, including gardeners, will respond to this CA devastation.
If you have some cash and you are interested in farm production and you have clever patience, CA is a land of opportunity. You might have to execute dry farming techniques for awhile, but the canal system will be improved by Uncle Sam and the drought will break. The money to be made with almost zero downside risk is enormous.
Don't worry, have faith, the invisible hand will sort this all out...
http://www.strongmindbraveheart.com/celebs-normal-lives/
What will the celebs do without organic fresh California fruit?!?!?!
Next time these dickwads speak, think of these.
The organic produce of CA is irrigated with dairy cow waste....very ORGANIC.
Dipshits from the city eat shit, but I assure you this is organic.
Property prices in Western WA and OR will skyrocket. The North has water for hundreds of years to come.
I'm afraid you're right. But on the other hand there aren't anywhere near the jobs for millions of Californians to go there, so the Californians will probably have to move out to flyover country and start new cities in those areas. One would hope anyway!
I looked at the fruits and veggies at the store. A lot of them came from Mexico, a few from California and a lot more didn't say. Maybe we will have to stop burning corn so we can eat it. On the other hand all those illegals employed in CA agriculture might go home and what will california do with all those unused EBT cards? That will be a mess of plastic.
Talk here is that they are going to move to the eastern US.
"The Money Printers: How Central Banks destroyed the world"
There's a f*cking title for you.
Yelland and Co better ramp up that private 'Fed' army or wind back stimulus and collapse into a deflation (we will take our chances with the lessor of the two evils), it's the only way to offset energy and food inflation from extreme weather. Better sill just shut down your mandates and shrink Wall Street by 50%. Either way it would be wise to read up about the Reign of Terror ala France 1700s pre Napoléon
Keep an eye on the west coast fisheries, I suspect a problem. The new england fisheries will be the next big thing and I hope investors will appreciate what the the smaller locals have to offer. It would be nice to work together for a change instead of certain hedge funds fucking them over as has been demonstrated by the administration.
http://bangordailynews.com/2014/02/13/news/down-east/cobscook-scallop-fi...
Fishermen have been enjoying record high prices for scallops this season. When state officials enacted the emergency closure, scallopers were getting $12.50 per pound, the fishermen said. The daily limit in the Cobscook Bay region is 90 pounds of meat, which — at that price — represents earnings of $1,125 before expenses.
Scallops are so abundant in the Cobscook Bay region that they are not being harvested fast enough, and many are dying off, the fishermen argued. The dead and dying scallops are known as clappers, and Tracy Sawtell of Lubec estimated that 50 percent of the scallops in the Whiting River are clappers.
“They grow so quick in our bay,” added Ricky Wright, also of Lubec.
The region has led the way in some conservation measures imposed by DMR, noted Sawtell. It was the first region where a limit on scallops was established, first where a meat count was established, and first where urchin harvesting was closed temporarily.
“We make it good for the rest of the state,” said Sawtell, “and then we get penalized for it.”
As a farmer myself I can tell you that a material portion of many California harvests are left on the ground to rot. Food waste can be 50%.
Sure, a lot of this has to do with ignoring over-ripe veg that would never make it to market hundreds of miles away, but after you see a field worked and see the volume of waste left behind you will be steamed when you pay these crazy grocer prices.
Start a Freedom Garden this year to teach your kids something about nutrition and being productive and maybe even save a buck or ten.
Just a word to my fellow ZH'ers here....if you happen to like tomato based sauces you might wish to buy a couple of cases soon.Most people do not know it, but around 80% to 90% of producer tomato products come from CA.
In addition cotton (all of it exported to China) is another major item for CA....ditto almonds, pistachios, artichokes, and dairy products....just in case the Easterners here only think of lettuce....
Oh, well, time to let those poor farmers hire more illegal aliens, and give them more farm welfare entitlements.
Hi guys !
Is a search for a name for this disaster on ?
I suggest the "golden silicon bowl" or shortly the "Silicon Bowl" !
Mother nature super bowl is on the air !
Ciao !
but, but, they told me global warming was a lie
If everyone would just eat half as much two problems would be solved.
Hey all you Kali morons who keep voting in your phony Feinstein without as much as a debate from an opponent! As if you'd be up in here anyway. Listen to what a text book definition of conflict of interest is -
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/12/12/processing-distortion-with-pe...
What happens in California will be crucial in determining the price of food. This dovetails with a article I just wrote concerning supply and demand. Prices under the pressure of changes in supply and demand can be a lot like a carnival ride. By this I mean fast and abrupt swings can take place and often we see prices go to unimaginable extremes. It would be better to say changes in "supply or demand", we should fully realize the market works best when at least one side of the equation remains somewhat stable. More on this subject in the post below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/02/inflation-can-effect-supply-and-d...
Maybe it is for the best. This way we will not be eating food grown on Fukushima radiated soil.
I had the same thought.
I go ya one more paranoid (this is such a stab in the dark guess).
Could the radiation somehow contribute to the drought?
I know I can't know the answer and I almost hate to post that idea here because your point has merit and mine is flimsy.
But the trash is washing up. The rad readings are going up. I think you are right.
Earth's inner atmosphere is completely saturated with Fukushima radiation. There is no doubt this is causing weather problems, whether or not HAARP is sending electrical currents across the millions of tons of powdered aluminum and barium flowing across the world in the global jetstreams. The chemtrails have never been thicker, and the Russians sprayed like crazy after Chernobyl to keep the radiation from blanketing Moscow.
The ozone holes all over the Earth are helping heat things up, and the space radiation is mixing with the Fukushima radiation.
There is much to 'Climate Change', and we're too far gone to do anything about it. And there are many hundreds of other poorly built, poorly designed nuclear power plants - many of them here in the US, many of them on fault lines or flood plains - that are well beyond their lifespans and are starting to break down, with no fixes. Fukushima was only the beginning (and the only site the Japanese are somewhat 'open' about. There are other Japanese NPP sites that didn't like the earthquake . . .)
Welcome to Hell.
By the time the frog realizes the pot is boiling him to death it's too late.
Thats how we roll.
We live on a water planet, build a few fucking thorium powered DESAL plants ferchrissakes and stop whining..
According to proponents, a thorium fuel cycle offers several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle—including muchgreater abundance on Earth, superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and reduced nuclear waste production. However, it suffers from higher production and processing costs, and lacks significant weaponization potential.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
There is your answer in bold letters. Cui bono
Desal plants don't remove radiation. No one will drink the water, and if it's used on foodstuffs, well . . .
Next.
More supporting posts are needed!
60 years ago Uranium proponents were saying SAFE and UNLIMITED and CHEAP.
Now we have huge waste problems and poorly designed systems that do multiple "China Syndrome" meltdowns.
Don't forget to include goverments and industrial suppliers that lie about safety & dependability. Why have Pacific tuna prices plummeted?
I know the solution. Let's impose price controls!
Hell of a list. Where will all the Mexican farm workers go?
To YOUR state, bringing with them all their 3rd world crud.
South America has a bumper crop and full silo's.
Some of the previous comments suggest
that Snyder is exaggerating the threats.
My opinion was that Snyder was understating things!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x8BVyodH0Y
~Geoengineering And The Collapse Of Earth 2014
Nothing new, just another presentation of real facts:
extremely evil people doing weather modification.
In a world where "they" can get away with asserting that
"marijuana is a bad as murder" for decade after decade,
what kind of evil insanities are "they" not capable of?
Hemp seeds are the single best plant food for animals.
Put that into perspective regarding any "food prices."
Geo-engineering is the anti human agenda. I live in Northern California. The YouTube link you posted is important. This drought is likely exacerbated if not out and out caused by the DARPA at the direction of the global eugenicists. Here's the link to the site. -
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/
Two words: Weather Weapons.
Russia has widely adopted a practice of small, distributed farms - these produce a great deal of Russia's food - and because it is so well distributed, fresh food is available locally, cheaply and in good condition because it does not require transportation.
Aquaponics is a method of producing both fish, and vegetables in a very small space - with low energy consumption. Decentralization is not just a 'good idea' - it is necessary for the sake of liberty, and to protect the population.
Failure in a distributed and decentralized system effects only some parts - in a centralized system it effects all parts. The technology to implement decentralized systems for MANY things is now available - and for those who prize liberty and security - then self help is the best help.
The internet is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used to decentralize education, political power, science and much more. Other examples of decentralizing technology include; Solar cells, water catchment and storage tanks, wells and water purifiers, aquaponics and hydroponics, alternative currencies - gold, silver, crypto, private issue, bicycles and other alternative transportation, soon we will have useful 3D printers also - we have a great deal of decentralizing technology already - people just need to realize how liberating it is to start applying the principle of self sufficiency.
On Drudge: Antartic ice increased by 25%-the damn penguins are HOARDING the water down there!
Military Alert:
Unidentified high altitude aircraft dumping mountains of metal powder along the entire west coast of California. Aircraft must be escorted out of California airspace or shot down. Harm to agriculture, citizen's health, and supra-governmental illegal activity cited.
Severe winter corresponds statistically with observed weather manipulation; harm to citizens and economy.
But on the other hand, almost all US States are capable of growing these things as well. If just 10 US States each take up 10% of what Cali used to produce, then you won't even notice a hiccup.
Not to mention Mexcio and other places can propably produce more at a non-noticable cost increase.
Despite Californians' famous delusions of grandeur, they may find that they are eminently replaceable after all.
The REAL problem with all this is that the communists in Kommiefornia will flee their dustbowl, taking the BS ideology and stupidities with them. They will become the Great Marxist Disapsora, infecting the rest of the USofA--and most keenly those parts of the USA still economically viable--with their communist SUCK.
The END IS NIGH! Repent, all ye sinners and fools!
All California produce is highly contaminated with Fukushima radiation. Oranges, pistachios and other fcod all read high.
We have stopped eating California produce and our family uses sodium alginate and Vitapect to decontaminate ourselves from radiation.
www.vitapect.org has more info on contamination