MIdwest Floods May Drive Food Prices Even Higher

The Midwest floods are raising the inflationary tide rippling through the nation’s supermarkets and restaurants-and meat prices may soon  start rising along with prices for bread, eggs,  and breakfast cereals.

Economists are again raising their forcasts of how much food prices will climb, and for how long, because heavy rains have washed out millions of acres of prime farmland at a time when soaring demand is draining U.S. grain supplies to low levels. . .(U.S. food prices are set) to climb between 7% and 9% this year.

‘The consumer hasn’t felt it yet on the protein side.  But it is coming,’ said Richard Bond, chief executive and president of Tyson Foods, Inc.

Scott Kilman, “Midwest Floods May Drive Food Prices Even Higher”, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2009, pA4