News Stories
- USDA Raises Food Price Forecast to Highest Level in 42 Years, Third Wave of U.S. Food Inflation Will Dwarf Prior Price Increases This month the USDA just re-re-revised the forward price outlook, and things are grim. It likely doesn’t come as a surprise to many CTH readers because we have been discussing the convergence of events since October of 2021, when we first were able to predict Wave-1 (Dec/Jan), and Wave-2 (March/Apr) inflation. However, the underlying data for Wave-3 is double the prior two phases.
- 97.7 Million Birds Are Already Dead As The Worst Bird Flu Outbreak Ever Sweeps Across North America And Europe Millions upon millions of birds have been dying, and most people don’t even realize that such a nightmarish pestilence has been absolutely devastating North America and Europe.
- Grocery Store Shortages: Your Favorite Foods in Short Supply From tomatoes to tampons, shortages in grocery stores are threatening to upend the holiday season as people scramble to stock up before it gets acute. Brazil is already facing a shortage in coffee harvests.
- Skimpflation: Watchdogs say look out for food ingredient changes amid shortages Skimpflation is known as ingredient changes to make a product more profitable. However, manufacturers say changes can happen for several reasons, like improved taste or quality, extending shelf-life, or when ingredients are in short supply.
- Hurricane Ian could push food prices even higher Hurricane Ian is the latest natural disaster to impact food prices. The storm hitting Florida is already forcing orange juice futures to rise, and it may soon squeeze the country’s fertilizer supply — which could have a far-reaching impact.
- Putin slams West’s ‘predatory’ food ‘swindle’ Western nations are using their wealth and ability to print money to vacuum up food products from the global market, the Russian leader said during a government meeting on Tuesday. The unfolding crisis has been in the making for several years, he claimed.
- Be on High Alert for This While Grocery Shopping, Police Say in New Warning From customers pulling out weapons to shoplifters attacking employees, there has been a significant rise of crime within grocery stores recently, The New York Times reported in June.
- 2022 was a bad year for rice harvesting in California, producing only half the usual amount The Sacramento River Valley is one of the top producers of rice. Half of the crop is exported to Japan and Korea and much of the sushi rice eaten in the United States is grown here. But according to the California Rice Commission, of the 500,000 acres normally produced, only 250,000 will be harvested this year.
- Grocery Prices Surged by 13.5% in August Americans’ visits to the grocery store will likely continue to be expensive as a new report the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ August Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicates that food prices continue climbing upward. Per its most recent report, the overall cost of food increased by 11.4%. Similarly, the food-at-home category went up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis.
- Unprecedented Famine Causes Widespread Suffering in the Horn of Africa Unprecedented famine conditions not seen in the last 40 years are gripping parts of Africa. Back-to-back droughts, COVID-19, and effects from the Ukraine war have created dire conditions for the eastern region.