14 States Suffering Under Drought - NYTimes.com

By KIM SEVERSON and KIRK JOHNSON

COLQUITT, Ga. — The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement.

Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days.

“It’s horrible so far,” said Mike Newberry, a Georgia farmer who is trying grow cotton, corn and peanuts on a thousand acres. “There is no description for what we’ve been through since we started planting corn in March.”

The pain has spread across 14 states, from Florida, where severe water restrictions are in place, to Arizona, where ranchers could be forced to sell off entire herds of cattle because they simply can’t feed them.

In Texas, where the drought is the worst, virtually no part of the state has been untouched. City dwellers and ranchers have been tormented by excessive heat and high winds. As they have been in the southwest, wildfires are chewing through millions of acres.

Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture designated all 254 counties in Texas as natural-disaster areas, qualifying them for varying levels of federal relief. More than 30 percent of the state’s wheat fields might be lost, adding pressure to a crop in short supply globally.

Even if weather patterns shift and relief-giving rain comes, losses will surely head past $3 billion in that state alone, Texas agricultural officials said.

Most troubling is that the drought, which could go down as one of the nation’s worst, has come on extra hot and extra early. It has its roots in 2010 and continued through the winter. The five months from this February to June, for example, were so dry that they shattered a Texas record set in 1917, said Don Conlee, the acting state climatologist.

Oklahoma has had only 28 percent of its normal summer rainfall and the heat has blasted past 90 degrees for a month.

“We’ve had a two- or three-week start on what is likely to be a disastrous summer,” said Kevin Kloesel, director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

The question, of course, becomes why. In a spring and summer in which weather news has been dominated by epic floods and tornadoes, it is hard to imagine that more than a quarter of the country is facing an equally daunting but very different kind of natural disaster.

From a meteorological standpoint, the answer is fairly simple. “A strong La Niña shut off the southern pipeline of moisture,” said David Miskus, who monitors drought for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

The weather pattern called La Niña is an abnormal cooling of Pacific waters. It usually follows El Niño, which is an abnormal warming of those same waters.

Although a newly released forecast from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center suggests this dangerous weather pattern could revive in the fall, many in the parched regions find themselves in the unlikely position of hoping for a season of heavy tropical storms in the Southeast and drenching monsoons in the Southwest.

Climatologists say the great drought of 2011 is starting to look a lot like the one that hit the nation in the early to mid-1950s. That, too, dried a broad swath of the southern tier of states into leather and remains a record breaker.

But this time things are different in the drought belt. With states and towns strapped for cash and unemployment still high, the stress on the land and the people who rely on it for a living is being amplified by political and economic forces, state and local officials say.

As a result, this drought is likely to have the cultural impact of the great 1930s drought, which hammered an already weakened nation.

“In the ’30s you had the Depression and everything that happened with that, and drought on top,” said Donald A. Wilhite, director of the school of natural resources at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and former director of the National Drought Mitigation Center. “The combination of those two things was devastating.”

Although today’s economy is not as bad, many Americans ground down by prolonged economic insecurity have little wiggle room to handle the effects of a prolonged drought. Government agencies are in the same boat.

“Because we overspent, the Legislature overspent, we’ve been cut back and then the drought comes along and we don’t have the resources and federal government doesn’t, and so we just tighten our belt and go on,” said Donald Butler, the director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture.

The drought is having some odd effects, economically and otherwise.

“One of the biggest impacts of the drought is going to be the shrinking of the cattle herd in the United States,” said Bruce A. Babcock, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University in Ames. And that will have a paradoxical but profound impact on the price of a steak.

Ranchers whose grass was killed by drought cannot afford to sustain cattle with hay or other feed, which is also climbing in price. Their response will most likely be to send animals to slaughter early. That glut of beef would lower prices temporarily.
 

Read more here: 14 States Suffering Under Drought - NYTimes.com

PHOTOS: Surging Food Prices Are Sparking Riots All Around The World

Rising food inflation sparked violence across the Middle East and South Asia over the weekend, as demonstrators protested the high cost of staple commodities like sugar, rice and milk. 

The outbursts ignited fears that the world is due for a repeat of the 2008 food protests that rocked countries as far apart as Haiti, Senegal and Bangladesh.

Food prices are now at an all time high, and are trending higher, indicating that this may be only the beginning of the food riot problem.

Click here to check out the riots

PHOTOS: Surging Food Prices Are Sparking Riots All Around The World

U.S. Companies Shrink Packages as Food Prices Rise - DailyFinance

U.S. food prices have been rising in the last year, but it seems the growth is only just beginning. A sharp jump in commodities' prices this year will soon result in sticker shock for American consumers.

Large food companies have recently announced that they will raise the prices they charge grocery retailers for commodities-based products. For example, a chocolate bar will cost more soon: Hershey last week announced a 10% increase for most of its confectionery goods.

Of course, straightforward price hikes could cause consumers to buy less of those products or to choose less costly store brands. So in many cases, food companies are trying a different tactic: Keeping the price of an item the same while decreasing the amount of food in the package. The company recoups the costs of the rise in commodities and hopes consumers don't notice that they're getting less of the product for the same price.

Food companies have no obligation to tell customers about the smaller packages, but may suffer a backlash from consumers who notice how the packaging trick works. Here are some of the shrinking products that you might notice in your grocery aisles:

Read more here: U.S. Companies Shrink Packages as Food Prices Rise - DailyFinance

Wholesale prices up 1.6 pct. on steep rise in food - Yahoo! Finance

The AP notes that excluding food and energy "inflation was tame". I'm sorry but the MSM just doesn't get it. Yes, a new iPad 2 cost the same as the old iPad from last year but who the f*ck cares. I need to eat. I don't need a cool gadget to survive. And the rise in energy costs affects everything from the cost for people to get to work, earn a living (truckers) and farm the food we eat (higher fuel costs lead directly to higher food prices).

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February -- double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January's 0.5 percent rise.

Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.

Energy prices rose 3.3 percent last month, led by a 3.7 percent increase in gasoline costs.

Read more: Wholesale prices up 1.6 pct. on steep rise in food - Yahoo! Finance

Produce prices skyrocket with freeze in Mexico, Southwest - KGW.com

PORTLAND -- Get ready to pay double or even triple the price for fresh produce in the coming weeks after the worst freeze in 60 years damaged and wiped out entire crops in northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. 

The problem started less than a week ago, when our nation was focusing on the Superbowl and sheets of ice falling from Texas Stadium. 

Farmers throughout northern Mexico and the Southwest experienced unprecedented crop losses.  Now devastation that seemed so far away, is hitting us in the pocketbooks.

"We've had to double and triple some prices and consumers come in and it's quite a shock to them," said Rusty Peake, GM of Food4Less in Southeast Portland. 

"Increase, increase, increase," said produce manager Troy Winterhalter as he watched urgent messages coming across his laptop computer. "Peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, asparagus, the entire asparagus crop was wiped out," said Winterhalter.

Roma tomatoes have more than doubled in price since Thursday and very soon they may not be available at all.

About the only produce not impacted by the freeze in the coming weeks are things grown right here in the Northwest like potatoes, onions and apples.

The situation is so dire, some stores can't honor certain advertised prices, which were ordered in local newspapers long before the freeze.

"Now I'm in a tough situation where I can't really support ads and I try to do the best I can letting the consumers know what's going on in the markets," said Peake. 

He said this is the worst produce situation he's seen in 25 years in the business. 

Next week, lettuce and spinach prices are expected to rise.  Normal prices likely won't return until new crops in Mexico start producing again in late March and early April.

Huge Winter Storm Threatens Wheat, Cattle - FoxBusiness.com

More bad news for food prices.

In Oklahoma, 45 mile-per-hour winds and temperatures of 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) and lower were proving dangerous for the state's 5.1 million head of cattle said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry.

Ranchers have been rushing to get their animals to areas with wind breaks and to provide hay and areas where they can access water.

"Hypothermia and dehydration are the two things we worry about," Carson said.
Grain dealers said several merchandising locations through Oklahoma and Kansas were closed down on Tuesday or operating with skeleton crews as heavy, blowing snow and icy conditions overwhelmed the U.S. Plains.

Traders at major grain companies, including agricultural processor and ethanol producer Archer Daniels, Cargill and Gavilon LLC, reported at least some of their operations were affected by the storm.

Fields seeded with winter wheat last fall could be threatened in some areas if they lack a protective snow cover. Frigid conditions can cause winterkill in new plants which lack adequate moisture.

"With these severe temperatures, in areas where the snow is blowing off, you could see some damage there," Carson said.

Any damage to the crop would rally CBOT wheat futures, which are already trading around 29-month highs due to a drought in Russia and rains which damaged the Australian crop.

Shoppers Trampled at Local Target

This crowd at Target caused a stampede for cheap Chinese TVs. Could you imagine what it would be like if there was a food shortage?

When the doors opened at a North Buffalo Target store at 4:00 a.m. Friday morning, the relaxed crowed waiting outside turned into a chaotic mob.

Customers began charging through the doors, some falling down and causing a pile-up that took officials a few minutes to clear up.

Store officials yelled at angry shoppers to back-up as screams came from the crowd as they jammed in the entry way.

"I was pushed and almost trampled someone else but nothing really bad happened," shopper Rick Mathewson said.

One shopper got up from the pile appearing to be pain, but then joined the rush and headed into the store.

Putin announces ban on grain exports

The decision by the Russian government appears to be warranted in light of the massive crop failures in that country. Food prices will surely go up in the short term but how high can they go before people take their anger out on their governments. There are currently record numbers of Americans relying on food stamps to put food on the table. The U.S. Department of Agriculture - which oversees the program and distributes the money to states - projects that 43 million Americans will be using food stamps by next year. The last thing we need right now are higher fuel and food prices with unemployment numbers as high as they are right now. Eventually other countries might decide to stop exporting their own surpluses in efforts to insulate their own populations from these higher prices which could prove disastrous for poorer nations that rely on food aid. But even the larger countries like the U.S., India and China could have problems as these countries rely upon grain imports to meet the needs of their populations.

Putin announces ban on grain exports
By Catherine Belton in Moscow and Jack Farchy and Javier Blas in London

Published: August 5 2010 10:50
Last updated: August 5 2010 10:50

Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, on Thursday announced a temporary export ban on grains after a severe drought decimated the country’s crops.

“I think it would be expedient to introduce a temporary ban on export grains and other agricultural goods,” Mr Putin told a Cabinet meeting. “We cannot allow an increase in domestic prices and we need to maintain the number of cattle.”

The ban will take effect from August 15, a spokesman for Mr Putin said

Wheat prices rallied sharply on the news. In Chicago, wheat jumped by its daily limit of 60 cents to a new peak two-year peak above $7.85 a bushel, up nearly 80 per cent in little a over a month. In Paris, European wheat hit €222.75 a tonne, up 6.6 per cent on the day.

Interfax, the Russian news agency, earlier quoted a source in one of the economic ministries as saying that the export ban could affect wheat, barley, rye, corn and flour. It also quoted Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Grain Union lobby group, as saying: “The signals that export will close from as soon as August 10 exist.”