| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Produce prices skyrocket overnight |
| 2011-02-12 |
| 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. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 Now is the time to stock up on a few basic foods. Any grain products. Cereals shortly will go up in price and possibly out of stock as well. Farmers can't afford to feed animals but aren't getting anything at sale. So they are just holding on. Contract food buy in groups are being told contracts can't be honored due to act of God (Sysco Foods). Huge increases for restaurants. Farmer I have their seeds, fertilizer and fuel contracts done. Hope is that with the grain increases they will pay down debt incurred to plant. Then next issue will be the weather. I knew a farmer that had to take valium to steady his nerves. |
| Posted by: Dale 2011-02-12 23:22 |
| #3 And thanks to the judges in California, there are no crops in the central valley. What is generally called America's Salad Bowl is now a dust bowl. Remember that a major reason those prices are skyrocketing is because US judges have pushed those farms out of the US. We have had a wonderful spring here in California, but the fields are bare. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2011-02-12 21:08 |
| #2 Feed me!! Feed me!! |
| Posted by: Audrey the Plant 2011-02-12 15:58 |
| #1 Anthropomorphic Gerbil Worming blamed in 3,2,1. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-02-12 15:04 |