Food prices may go up next year, but for now
the severe drought conditions should not have an immediate effect on prices at
the grocery store according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“The prices and the impact of a drought will
probably not likely be seen in the grocery aisle until later next year in
2013,” Vilsack said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Commodity prices are different from actual
prices that we see in the stores the next day. And while commodity
prices are on the rise, Vilsack argues that those increases will not
translate into immediate price increases.
The
secretary also chastised any business currently engaged in
price gouging.
“If folks are using this opportunity to raise
prices inappropriately, then shame on them,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack instead points to the high energy
costs associated with transporting food as the culprit for any recent
fluctuation in supermarket prices.
“That’s why it’s important for us to continue
to focus on the President’s ‘all of the above’ approach to produce more energy
in the United States,” he said.
Congress is considering a farm bill that
would reinstate farmer disaster relief.
Original article here
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