A front-page special served up especially for you by the Boston Globe:
"A Boston taco tells the tale of far-reaching food cost woe" by Megan WoolhouseGlobe Staff February 06, 2015
The tiny storefront of Tacqueria Casa Real looks out onto a bustling stretch of Dorchester Avenue, but in another way, the restaurant's counter provides a view on the world.
It’s a view, more specifically, of rising food costs, and an interconnected food chain where a shortage of feed in the Midwest, a drought along the Malabar Coast of India, or growing appetite for cheese in South Korea can drive up prices for a small Dorchester shop.
That's strange because fuels costs have been dropping and I was told globalization of the food chain would feed everyone.
Food prices over the past year have increased at four times the rate of overall inflation, with fresh products, such as meat, vegetables, and dairy, soaring even faster.
Good thing it is not counted in the official inflation figures provided by the government.
Ground beef prices, for example, are up about 20 percent from a year ago; lettuce, 12 percent; and fresh tomatoes, almost 27 percent, according to the US Labor Department. Dairy products, including cheese and sour cream, have climbed more than 5 percent.
Shoppers at local grocery stores have felt the sharp rise in prices, but for Ricky Reyes, owner of the taqueria on Dorchester Avenue, costlier ingredients mean it is getting harder to keep the price of his signature product, a $1.95 beef taco, under $2.
“Everything’s going up, and we end up eating the increases,” he said.
No prices have gone up faster than for beef, as almost any family shopping for dinner can attest. It’s especially costly when you shop in bulk, as Reyes does, and a week’s supply of ground beef is 70 pounds purchased at Restaurant Depot, a wholesale market in Everett. A year ago, that cost him about $190; this week, he paid nearly $225.
Short supplies and strong demand are to blame for costlier beef, according to the US Department of Agriculture. A drought in 2012 sent soybean and corn feed prices soaring, which in turn led ranchers in beef-raising states such as Texas and Oklahoma to cull their herds.
With feed prices stabilizing, ranchers again are adding cattle, said Annemarie Kuhns, a USDA economist, but herd sizes remain about the same as in the 1950s, when the nation’s population was about half of today’s. Meanwhile, US beef exports are growing to meet demand in Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and other countries.
That's the sign of a third world country and society. You starve and impoverish yourselves while exporting the wealth to enrich elite interests.
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As a result, record global demand for cheese is also putting pressure on prices as American farmers and processors found new markets in Asia, according to the US Dairy Export Council.
Exports to South Korea are up by 40 percent in the last five years as the nation increasingly adopts Western dietary habits, said Robert Chesler, a vice president at FC Stone, a commodities trading firm in Chicago.
Expect more obesity, heart disease, and diabetes coming your way.
US cheese sold in China has jumped more than 30 percent in the past two years after toxins were found in milk produced there, leading the government to take actions that closed small dairies.
Reyes’s beef taco contains just a sprinkling of cheese, and the optional squirt of sour cream, but it can add up when you prepare more than 500 a week.
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Even the price of pepper has jumped.
The International Pepper Community, an intergovernmental organization of pepper-producing countries, said prices have risen for the last five years due to “high demand and stagnant supply.” Production of pepper on India’s Malabar Coast, a central producer for centuries, has fallen due to infestations, aging gardens, and drought.
I never use pepper.
A multiyear drought is also largely responsible for poor harvests in California and the jump in the prices of lettuce, tomatoes, and other vegetables. California, for example produces more than 70 percent of the nation’s lettuce....
That and neglected irrigation infrastructure.
Related:
"Thanks to a rainy December, California’s drought-suffering residents met Governor Jerry Brown’s call to slash water consumption by 20 percent, but water officials are only cautiously optimistic. The new data show some Californians may be getting the message. Although seasonal rains are a major factor, per-capita water use has been cut in half in the last six months."
Maybe you should skip the lettuce.
Reyes has considered adding a $1 surcharge for extras, like lettuce and tomato, much the same way the fast-food chain Chipotle charges an extra 30 cents for items with beef.
I think I'll skip lunch today.
But Reyes wonders how the day laborers, construction workers, police, writers, and other customers who line up at his Dorchester counter daily for lunch would respond.
Reyes, who works behind the counter six-days a week, said increased prices have squeezed his profit margins so much that he has indefinitely postponed plans to open another location. For the time being, he expects to break even, at best, on a mainstay product.
“We want to be affordable,” Reyes said of his tacos, “but sometimes it’s probably not worth it.”
That's why I make my own.
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I just thought of something else not worth it, and it also causes heartburn.
Maybe this will help you wash it down:
"That the carbonated drink market has gone, well, soft, and beverage behemoth Coca-Cola has been looking to diversify its offerings has been a given for years. But high-end moo juice? Coke is rolling out Fairlife, a premium milk with more protein and less sugar. And it’s betting people will pay twice as much for it. The national rollout comes as people increasingly seek out some type of functional boost from their foods and drinks, whether it’s more fiber, antioxidants, or protein. That has left the door open for Coke’s entry into your neighborhood milk case. The result is a drink that Fairlife says is lactose free and has 50 percent more protein, 30 percent more calcium, and 50 percent less sugar than regular milk."
Don't binge on the stuff like Seles though.
NDU:
"Government provides $50m in drought aid" Associated Press February 07, 2015
SACRAMENTO — The federal government is making available up to $50 million in drought relief funds for Western states, with the largest portion going to parched California, US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Governor Jerry Brown said Friday.
The additional funding includes about $20 million for the Central Valley Water Project for efforts such as water transfers, drought monitoring for endangered species, and diversifying water supplies.
The funding announcement came as the year’s first major storm moved into Northern California, bringing with it the potential for up to 10 inches of rain in places, after an exceptionally dry January.
Good thing they had a wet December.
Last week’s survey of the state’s snowpack, its primary water source, found only a quarter of its normal level.
So I'm told.
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I'm supposed to believe the photos, too. Who knows when they were really taken.
