Posted on 02/14/2011 7:47:53 AM PST by 444Flyer
PORTLAND -- Get ready to pay double or even triple the price for fresh produce in the coming weeks after the worst freeze in 60 years damaged and wiped out entire crops in northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S.
The problem started less than a week ago, when our nation was focusing on the Superbowl and sheets of ice falling from Texas Stadium.
Farmers throughout northern Mexico and the Southwest experienced unprecedented crop losses. Now devastation that seemed so far away, is hitting us in the pocketbooks.
(Excerpt) Read more at kgw.com ...
Screw it!....No salads for me!
During stupor bowl week, the city of Chihuahua, Mexico got down into the teens at night.
I went to a Wendy’s down the road from me on Saturday and they had signs up saying that due to crop losses, tomatoes were no longer being put on anything except by request and at extra charge.
The really ugly part is, we need to brace for another flood of illegals as the farmers from Meheeco head north to Uncle Barack’s Promised Land. BUILD THE WALL. NOW. NO EXCUSES.
}:-)4
One of the world’s leading food distribution companies, Sysco Corporation, has advised clients and their customers that the recent freeze across North America has significantly impacted growing operations in Mexico (as well as parts of the U.S.) leading to **80% - 100%** crop damage:
The February 8, 2011 memo from Sysco Corporation:
ALL OF OUR GROWERS HAVE INVOKED THE ACT OF GOD CLAUSE ON OUR CONTRACTS DUE TO THE FOLLOWING RELEASE. WE WILL BE CONTACTING YOU PERSONALLY TO REVIEW HOW THIS WILL AFFECT OUR CONTRACTED ITEMS WITH YOU GOING FORWARD.
THE DEVASTATING FREEZE IN MEXICO IS WORST FREEZE IN OVER 50 YEARS…
THE EXTREME FREEZING TEMPERATURES HIT A VERY BROAD SECTION OF MAJOR GROWING REGIONS IN MEXICO, FROM HERMOSILLO IN THE NORTH ALL THE WAY SOUTH TO LOS MOCHIS AND EVEN SOUTH OF CULIACAN. THE EARLY REPORTS ARE STILL COMING IN BUT MOST ARE SHOWING LOSSES OF CROPS IN THE RANGE OF 80 TO 100%.
EVEN SHADE HOUSE PRODUCT WAS HIT BY THE EXTREMELY COLD TEMPS. IT WILL TAKE 7-10 DAYS TO HAVE A CLEARER PICTURE FROM GROWERS AND FIELD SUPERVISORS, BUT THESE GROWING REGIONS HAVEN’T HAD COLD LIKE THIS IN OVER A HALF CENTURY. THIS TIME OF YEAR, MEXICO SUPPLIES A SIGNIFICANT PERCENT OF NORTH AMERICA’S ROW CROP VEGETABLES SUCH AS: GREEN BEANS, EGGPLANT, CUCUMBERS, SQUASH, PEPPERS, ASPARAGUS, AND ROUND AND ROMA TOMATOES.
FLORIDA NORMALLY IS A MAJOR SUPPLIER FOR THESE ITEMS AS WELL BUT THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN STRUCK WITH SEVERE FREEZE DAMAGE IN DECEMBER AND JANUARY AND UP UNTIL NOW HAVE HAD TO PURCHASE PRODUCT OUT OF MEXICO TO FILL THEIR COMMITMENTS, THAT IS NO LONGER AND OPTION.
WITH THE SERIES OF WEATHER DISASTERS THAT HAS OCCURRED IN BOTH OF THESE MAJOR GROWING AREAS WE WILL EXPERIENCE IMMEDIATE VOLATILE PRICES, EXPECTED LIMITED AVAILABILITY, AND MEDIOCRE QUALITY AT BEST. THIS WILL NOT ONLY HAVE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON SUPPLIES, BUT BECAUSE OF VERY STRONG BLOSSOM DROPS, THIS WILL ALSO IMPACT SUPPLIES 30 – 60 DAYS FROM NOW.
SOME GROWERS ARE MEETING WITH THEIR BOARDS RIGHT NOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEY SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RE-PLANT, HOPING FOR A HARVEST BY LATE-MARCH-TOEARLY-APRIL, OR WHETHER THEY SHOULD DISC THE FIELDS UNDER AND WAIT FOR ANOTHER SEASON.
I think I’ll stock up on canned veggies and fruits this week. I can’t do anything about lettuce and the like but will ensure that I have plenty of non-perishables for the summer/autumn. One other thing...this will be a great year to have my own garden. Its too bad that I’ll have to wait until late summer for everything, but thats life.
Food price inflation was already hitting family budgets hard. And now this.
Who buys veggies grown in human waste from mexico anyway?
Good idea. I was thinking the exact same thing. Don’t forget frozen fruits and veggies as well.
It’s only been in the past 50 years or so that fresh fruits and veggies from all over the world have been available in grocery stores out of season.
Seasonal fresh used to mean just that. And somehow people survived...
Someone clearly is! Even if your fruits and veggies don't come from the region which was damaged by frost, you can count on the prices of fruit and veggies to go up no matter where grown.
Exactly. Just because people have come to expect things doesn’t mean its a disaster when it doesn’t show up.
My great grandmother told me that she tasted her first fresh orange when she was in her 20s. Before that, most of what they ate was grown right here in Michigan. (which is a surprisingly wide variety of fruits and veggies)
I’d like to know how Gerald Celente KNEW about the freeze when he predicted food shortages.
I agree....grow your own.
Bears repeating. The food now, compared with the more modest meals my mother made in the sixties, is like a wedding feast every day. I was an adult before I tasted mushrooms, asparagus, and many other kinds of produce.
Apples, cabbage, turnips, potatoes in the cellar....that's what was available, and what would keep.
I think people should look into what is grown in their states and encourage more of it.
Most people don’t think of Michigan as a big farming state but we rank first in something like 13 different crops (mostly for processed food like pickling cucumbers, tart cherries, baking apples etc) Greens and root crops grow very well here too. In fact one of the biggest mistakes I see gardeners make is not growing climate appropriate crops. I like tomatoes and I do grow them but I can’t count on them from year to year.
When I was a kid in New Orleans my dad drove across the bridge over the river every morning and would call my mom whenever he saw the Chiquita Banana boat docked at the wharf at the beginning of the season.
They’d be priced at 9 cents a pound in the grocery stores the next day.
Fresh strawberries are only three months away in my area. For a 3-4 week period we buy enough of them at the farm to be sick of eating them for the rest of the year.
Potatoes are still as cheap as 10lbs for $3...So eat those for the next two months like that guy in Idaho did. And he lost 20lbs. Eat only taters until produce prices go down to normal
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