Fast food chains face tomato famine, page 1

Fast food chains face tomato famine

money.cnn.com

Due to unusually cold winter weather, 60% to 70% of Florida's tomato crop was destroyed, said Terence McElroy, a spokesman at the Florida Department of Agriculture. And because the sunshine state produces about 75% of U.S. tomatoes, prices across the country have spiked.

A 25-pound box of tomatoes from south Florida is selling for $30, up more than 300% from a year ago, when a box of tomatoes cost about $6.50 to $7, said Reggie Brown...

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I posted in another thread about going to a Wendy's restaurant and not being able to get tomatos for my burger. While after I read this article I see that this is a much more widespread problem.

Food prices are going skyhigh. The credit crisis caused a lower amount of planting this year, not just in tomatos. The bad weather this winter in most parts of the country have just made this worse. 300% increase in the cost of tomatos? That's tomato hyperinflation! In other threads it has also been noted that in some places bees are disappearing as well this year. My fear is that this is just the beginning of massive food price increase in everything from soybeans to corn to apples this year. With people already out of work all over, how are we going to afford the much higher grocery bills that will come from food shortages?

money.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by oneinthesame

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I went to Wendy's the other day and there were notices posted as well. Only customers who specifically requested tomatoes were to get them due to quality and availability. But I used to work in a restaurant and I remember the same thing happening(several years ago, I don't remember exactly when) because the owner never stoped complaining about the cost and wanted us to discourage customers from requesting them.

But the unusual weather is not an isolated occurance. I find the weather in my area to be a bit disconcerting at this time a year. Where I live we have a saying that March is "in like a lion, out like a lamb." We usually have a few good snow storms before the end of the month but we are March 11th and I've seen people raking their lawns.

At this time of the year we are usually still buried under a few feet of snow but I can see the spring flowers coming up in my garden. To give you an idea of the difference, last year we had 295.6 cm of snow and this year we have had about 95cm.
While I know not every year will be the same I still have a strange feeling like spring has come WAY to early.

I wonder what kind of an effect this will have on our produce, wildlife and insect population this year.

Longer warm period = Bigger Spiders

[edit on 3/11/2010 by Hatcookie]

reply to post by oneinthesame

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Yeah the Wendy's restraunts here don't have any, signs say available on request only when they can get them. I haven't seen anyone else though boasting they haven't got tomatoes.

reply to post by ExPostFacto

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I completely agree with you. I was shocked to learn just how concentrated the growing of tomatos are and how an entire crop can be ruined by the weather in one area. Food security is very important, and unfortunately with our centralized growin areas and just in time delivery system, one bad storm can effect the stock of foods throughout the whole nation. I believe that more local growning needs to be done to prevent these types of disasters. I plan to start this year, in my yard.

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