With over half of the U.S. in a drought, concerns about what this will mean for food prices. Farmers are starting to feel the impact, and consumers will soon, too. Out of KTVQ news in Billings, Montana, a state affected by the drought, comes this report:
“For sure, the full effect of this drought will not be until 2013. It’ll be 2013 when we see it and its in the whole supermarket,” he said. “But if the price of corn shoots up, we’d see this effect within about two to three months. That doesn’t mean we’ll see a complete jump into food prices. It’s just that we should start to see the effects.”
On July 25 the USDA will provide their monthly estimates of food prices, which would factor in drought conditions, Volpe said. Click here to read the full story.
While my heart goes out to individual farmers who are going to suffer when their corn crops fail, in the bigger picture is it really a bad thing that this fossil-fuel intensive crop that is all-pervasive in our food supply (to the detriment of our health) is going to be in shorter supply in the near future?
Seems like a good time for the Story of Stuff folk to come out with a new video, The Story of Change. It was released this week. As the saying goes, if you don’t create change, change will create you. Are you ready to make change?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIQdYXCKUv0&feature=player_embedded]
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The Story of Stuff: The Story of Change
The New Normal: Kazakhstan’s Alarming Drought, Global Grain Prices Rising,
I’m going to be canoeing in beautiful Canadian Shield country here in northern Ontario for the next few days. So be well, I’ll catch up with you – and 350orbust – when I get back.