The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), reported that half of the United States was impacted by drought or extremely dry weather during the past year. While the statistics and impacts of drought can fluctuate from week to week, one thing remains constant: weather has a significant impact on farmers and influences the price of food.

As soil moisture dwindles, crops productivity falls. Droughts can also disrupt the planting and harvesting schedules of plants, resulting in lower yields and making plants more vulnerable to pests and diseases.

Dr. Dennis Todey is a climatologist with the USDA Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa, and said the full impact of this year’s drought is not yet known.

“There are places that will see significantly reduced yields.  But at this point supply does not seem to be a major problem.  The drought developed later in the season and may hit soybeans more.  Earlier in the season conditions were manageable for crops overall,” he said.

Where irrigation is available, growers were able to irrigate their food crops, so the yields were not affected as much, Dr. Todey said. Row crops such as grains and soybeans are irrigated less often.

However, the drought could cause the prices of meat and dairy products to increase because the cost of animal feed will be higher, reported Clevland.com, a news and information site based in Ohio.

But drought is not the only issue. USDA’s climate tracking is witnessing storm events with greater impacts – more damaging wind or hail events and heavier precipitation, Dr. Todey said. This weather impacts food supplies and prices at the store. For instance, the prices of vegetables, nuts, and berries are higher this year because of flooding in California, according to USA Today.  A combination of factors including drought, labor costs, war in Ukraine and trade disruptions led to record-high food prices in 2022, NPR reported.

Managing extreme events is challenging climatologists, researchers and agricultural producers. Farmers are proactively researching and implementing a range of practices including diversifying cropping systems, selecting crops better suited to drought conditions, and adopting soil management practices such as incorporating cover crops into rotation, in defense of conditions mother nature throws their way.

“Soils are our first line of defense against changing climate conditions,” Dr. Todey said. “Improving soil management has to be part of every operation. Changing rainfall with larger events and more rain when we have no crop canopy are also making soil loss worse. Improving soil management including reducing tillage and cover cropping can help mitigate soil loss issues.”

Weather has a direct impact on how food is grown and can affect the price of food. Farmers and scientists continue to develop methods to lessen the impact of weather and climate change.

The post How does weather impact the food chain? appeared first on Best Food Facts.

Just how extensive is this drought?

Dr. Hurt:

“About 64 percent of the continental United States is experiencing drought which surpasses the 1956 drought. We have to look back to the 1930s to find something that equals this one. I think it’s safe to say that over 100 years, this would be a top-5 drought.”

How has the drought affected prices for crops (commodities) so far?

Dr. Hurt:

“There are increases across the board:

• Corn prices are up about 60 percent
• Oat prices are up about 35-to-40 percent
• Soybeans are trading about 25 percent higher
• Wheat is up about 40 percent

“The wheat crop wasn’t highly impacted by the drought, but it is used, for example, as a substitute for corn in feeding farm animals so the price will go up as corn and soybeans come into shorter supply.”

What will the impact on food prices be and how quickly will consumers see it?

Dr. Hurt:

“Consumers will see higher prices for some foods more quickly than others. Foods that contain corn, soybeans, wheat and oats, for example, will rise in price relatively quickly. Meat price hikes will also occur but it will take a year or two for them to reach the consumer.

“When people hear that the price of corn has risen 60 percent they naturally assume there will be a similar increase in the price of a box of cornflakes. That’s not the case. The corn in a box of cornflakes represents only about 5 percent of its retail value. So, if corn prices go up 60 percent, the price of a box of cornflakes will go up about 3 percent.

“Foods such as bread, oatmeal, cooking oils, margarine and salad dressings will experience similar price increases because of shorter supplies of wheat, oats, and soybeans.

“As for meat prices, corn and soybeans are the primary ingredients farmers feed cows, pigs and chickens. Higher corn and soybean prices make it more expensive for farmers to feed these animals and will ultimately mean higher grocery store prices for ground beef, bacon and chicken breasts.  As the cost of feeding the animals, rises the profit realized by farmers decreases which results in fewer animals being raised. As the overall number of animals being raised decreases over time, the price of the products that come from them increases. In the case of this drought, that means we’ll see higher meat prices in 2013 and 2014.”

How will lower corn yields effect ethanol production and what will the impact be on fuel prices?

Dr. Hurt:

“In the six weeks starting in mid-June, the price of ethanol went up about 60-cents per gallon. When we consumers buy gasoline for our cars, about 10 percent of it is ethanol. So, that 60-cent increase in a gallon of ethanol results in about a 6-cent per gallon increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline. On an annualized basis that means we’ll be spending about $8 billion more for gasoline in the United States.”

_{Image: “Corn in drought, Western Kentucky, August, 2012” by CraneStation is licensed under CC BY 2.0.}

The post Drought: What Does It Mean For Food? appeared first on Best Food Facts.