Get ready for your produce prices to go up. :(

[cboy4]

It is so cold in California right now! x(
I know it's been warm in the East, but out here, we've definitely been having winter!

SAN FRANCISCO, January 13, 2007 - California citrus growers braced for potential disaster Saturday as temperatures across the state dropped to record lows that forecasters predicted could linger until the middle of next week.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=4933828

[napi21]

1. Not only produce prices will be rising, butbeef too. I just heard

AGAIN this morning that bails of hay are being air dropped in some places where cattle are stranded in 4 feet of snow. The same reportwas made about 2 weeks ago, and it was also mentioned that some of the young calves were dying because they weere too small to keep their head about the snow. These calves were to be next years breeding stock.

[Skidmore]

2. I haven't bought citrus fruit for the last 3 years.

I can't afford to pay $1/orange. A bag of oranges are about 1/5th of my weekly grocery budget. I'll by orange juice occasionally and a lemon or lime or two for cooking. We get local apples and I buy bananas from Aldis. Fresh produce in the winter here is getting to be so pricey that what I can't grow and freeze in the summer's garden, I just drop from the list. Or, I wait till I can go to Chicago and visit my daughter. Then I go to Valli Produce and buy fresh in bulk and prepare and freeze it when I get home.

[knitter4democracy]

7. Mmm . . . home-done frozen peaches . . .

I didn't freeze nearly enough this last summer. We're already out of raspberry jam and getting low on peaches. I need to do more this next year, especially the freezer salsa and spaghetti sauce.

If you aren't far from SW Michigan, you can get some good home-grown produce at small orchards and markets for much cheaper. That's where I go.

[progressivebydesign]

3. Most of produce sold in US now is not from the US.

So, I imagine all retailers will do is continue to import it from other countries... making it even harder for the American growers. It's scandalous, really, how corporate grocers are screwing the American farmers and growers already. Their rationale is providing CHEAP food for us... I'd rather pay more to get food that support American farmers and growers.

Do any of you have any idea how few things in the produce department or frozen fruit/veggie department that are actually FROM America? So the rise in produce prices from American producers will have little effect on the consumer, because they can always eat citrus from a developing country. The real cost is how the American growers will be squeezed out once again. Our food chain is being Walmarted.

[Deja Q]

5. Idaho potatoes and Florida oranges aren't from Idaho or Florida anymore?

:(

[cboy4]

10. Where I live, ALL of the produce in the summer comes from California.

In the winter, the grapes, etc. come from Chile and Southern Hemisphere countries.

The bottom line is farmers in my state (and others) suffer when the weather gets this cold.

[knitter4democracy]

4. I get most of mine from a local farm that delivers.

Our weird weather, though, will be affecting our produce-growers here in Michigan. Warm weather to get the apple trees budding and now ice storms. It's going to be a hard year, food-wise.

[TomInTib]

6. I was walking my dog in our little town yesterday

Quite a few of the stores keep water bowls on the sidewalk for dogs.

They were frozen over.

And none of those bowls were more than a hundred yards from SF Bay.

If it was that cold here, the growers are certainly screwed.

[EFerrari]

9. When Kid and I walked on Friday, my hands went numb after 5 minutes.

Yikes. I can only imagine what it's like in the valleys where the temp is less temperate.

[tridim]

8. I wish I had more of a yard

My tiny garden just isn't cutting it any more, although I haven't had to buy a fresh tomato or strawberries for the past 10 years.

As for citrus, I just take a 1000mg vitamin C every day. OJ and oranges are almost always too expensive, even before this year.

[partylessinOhio]

11. Those who are disabled and elderly on fixed incomes cannot afford

for food to go any higher. We are already eating an unhealthy diet of the cheapest food. With all other costs going up it is really scary and soon many of us will become homeless and some of us will die.

Our preznut is only concerned about his invasion wars and has no concern for Americans.