For local residents already facing the lofty combined costs of groceries and high gas prices, the loss of millions of acres of Iowan crops due to floods may bring an unwelcome jump in food prices.
In Michigan, however, less severe weather will allow farmers to replant some lost crops, but fuel costs will impact prices, said Jody Pollok-Newsom, executive director of the Michigan Corn Growers Association.
“Because they’ll have to replant everything they will end up paying double the fuel, seed and putting in double the input,” Pollok-Newsom said.
Iowan farmers’ fields may not be rescuable, said Taylor Johnston, an MSU crop and soil science professor.
“Their fields are completely flooded and are not going to recover,” Johnston said.
Dave Miller, director of research and commodity services for the Iowa Farm Bureau, said with 1.3 million acres of corn under water and 1.9 million to 2 million acres of soybeans gone, farmers are not optimistic.
“If we can’t get these replanted in a window of the next few weeks, we’re going to see a loss of billions of dollars and an impact on exports of these foods ? which go as far as Japan and Europe,” Miller said.
Johnston said with many fields out of production, the cost of food will go up for many reasons.
“With the loss of corn and soybean crops, people have two choices,” Johnston said. “They’re probably going to either feed it all to livestock, making the few crops even more expensive, or sell it all in stores, making the scarce livestock more expensive.”
Susan Smalley, director of the C.S. Mott Group for sustainable food systems at MSU, said prices would have increased with or without the weather issues.
“The availability of corn and soybeans is already tight between animal feed and uses as biofuel, which raises the prices,” Smalley said.
Still, she said the cost of food doesn’t need to be a big issue.
“What we need to remember is that for many people in the country, food is on average a small percentage of what we spend,” Smalley said.
Pollok-Newsom said costs don’t always relate to food itself.
“Petroleum prices are by far the biggest influence in food costs,” Pollok-Newsom said. “In a box of Corn Flakes, there’s probably only about 6 percent corn. But the prices have gone up a lot more than that — those extra boosts are from the gas to transport it.”
Pollok-Newsom said that just as consumers pay at the tank, transporters of the crops are paying double what they used to move produce across the country.
“I’m concerned for families, whatever their income level,” Smalley said. “These price changes are very real.”
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