If the problem were caused by crop failure in Red China, price spikes would be as temporary as hand sanitizer shortages were. We still import a lot of food we can grow in Red China (check you apple juice aisle). The fact is we could MASSIVELY increase our food output without breaking a sweat, but don’t, because it doesn’t presently pay enough (despite ethanol mandates increasing price of corn). It doesn’t pay enough in part because of cheap food imports. Most of the present spike is due to inflationary pressures (monetary policy) cited in the article which is also reflected in other commodities.
I used to buy Dole sliced peaches in fruit juice. It started as USA, then Greece got added, then China(brown flavorless peaches) and eventually China only.
Now DelMonte makes them and in the USA.
Yup. Most of the jugs that say "100% fruit juice" is apple juice from China. 80% of the apple juice consumed in this country comes from China.(Just hope they don't put melamine in it, eh?)
A few years ago when TX had a drought and ranchers were nearly giving away cattle, prices at the grocery store shot up instead of being cheaper. The middle man was making a fortune. Prices never came down. They’ve spiked again during covid.