FOOD prices in the United States may rise as California farmers cope with the state’s fourth year of drought by reducing water use and planting fewer crops.
The Golden State produces about half the nation’s fruits and vegetables, including 99 percent of walnuts and 98 percent of garlic, according to the International Business Times.
“California is basically all over your market,” said James Dunn, a Penn State professor who studies how weather affects food prices, according to the Times. “It’s important in almost any commodity.”
The state is the largest producer of kiwis, olives, avocados, tomatoes, spinach, grapes, dairy and tree nuts, according to RT. As farmers take measures to conserve water and protect their investments, agricultural unemployment and food prices could increase.
Nearly all nuts – such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts – are grown in California and require much water. The state produces at least 90 percent of the nation’s supplies of these crops, according to the Department of Agriculture.
Timothy Richards, an agribusiness professor at Arizona State University, provided data indicating a hike in produce prices last year, including an 11-cent increase per pound of broccoli to $1.89 and a 64-cent increase per pound of grapes to $3.06, according to CNN. Peppers and berries have also increased in price by 80 cents per clamshell to $3.88 and 26 cents per pound to $2.39, respectively.
The prices of fruits and vegetables dropped in February, but overall prices are anticipated to rise this year due to inflation, said US Department of Agriculture economist Annemarie Kuhns, according to CNN.
“The drought in California does have the potential to impact the price we pay for fresh fruit and fresh vegetables and dairy and fresh eggs we pay at the counter,” Kuhns said. “We are not sure what the exact impact will be.”
On Wednesday, April 1, California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order imposing a mandatory 25-percent water cutback on all cities in the Golden State, with the exemption of farmers. However, due to the water shortage, Central Valley farmers without senior water rights are slated to receive no water deliveries from California’s largest water delivery system (the Central Valley Project), while growers who are supplied by the State Water project will receive only 20 percent of requested deliveries this year.
“Farms and agriculture are prospering and they could go out of business next year,” Joe De Bosque, a farmer in California’s Central Valley, told RT. “How many businesses do you know that are prospering and profitable that go out of business? None! It’s going to happen in California, I guarantee you! If we have no water next year it’s [going to] happen!”
With farmers receiving less surface water from the government, some have resorted to drilling deeper wells to tap into groundwater. The process of acquiring the resource consumes much electricity, costs money and can drive farmers further into debt.
But others argue that the potential impact of the drought on food prices could be negated by various factors, including the global market.
“Once somebody in Costa Rica hears that we’re not going to plant as many melons here, they start planting them there,” said Milt McGiffen, a specialist in vegetables at University of California, Riverside, according to the International Business Times.
The domestic market may also correct the water imbalance, said Stephen Levy, director and staff economist at the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, according to MarketWatch. California could eventually obtain water from other sources, such as diversions from Canada and desalination plants.
Economist Daniel Sumner at University of California, Davis, does not think food price hikes are imminent, according to MarketWatch. He noted that California agriculture is just a portion of the nation’s food supply and that prices food has a small impact when moving the consumer price index (CPI).
“Even a 10 percent price increase – larger than I think is likely – the effect on the CPI will be very small,” he said, according to MarketWatch.
(With reports from CNN, International Business Times, MarketWatch and RT)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend April 11-14, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
