How climate change is raising your grocery bill

By Emma Court Bloomberg A spike in Australian lettuce prices A rise for European olive oil and for US vegetables Researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the European Central Bank have traced back those price jumps to extreme weather they say is linked to weather change Related Articles Breezy bites Bay Area rooftop restaurants What are the differences between plumcots pluots and apriums Enjoy hot fun in the summertime with these Bay Area events New Bay Area to-go spots are transforming charcuterie into an art form Taco Bell s latest innovation is barbecue sauce The group analyzed weather events around the world between and Several were so remarkable that a given region had experienced nothing like it prior to according to the analysis which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters on Monday in Europe Unprecedented conditions are set to become increasingly common across the world the analysis s authors say At the same time new records for extreme conditions will continue to be set further from those to which agricultural production and economic systems are in the present adapted Context change brings with it higher temperatures and extreme rains which can lower yields and make the crops that are harvested more expensive British households food bill for instance was about more in and due to surroundings change according to estimates by the nonprofit Power and Environment Intelligence Unit ECIU staffer Tom Lancaster was a coauthor of the new survey Consumers globally say they are feeling the effects of atmosphere change on their grocery bills making food unaffordable for certain and posing a challenge for central bankers trying to tame inflation Here are a minimal of the price hikes the researchers identified Soaring US vegetable prices In California registered its driest three-year period ever recorded leaving nearly a million acres of farm fields unplanted and producing initial crop revenue losses of nearly billion that year alone Arizona which grows the greater part of the US s winter lettuce supply also saw reductions in the amount of water the state received from the Colorado River due to a drought-related water shortage in the river basin These conditions in two major US agricultural states paired with Hurricane Ian hitting Florida contributed to a more than hike in the country s vegetable prices compared with the previous year A wide-reaching Asia heat wave A heat wave that warmed Asia last year to temperatures as high as F C was one of the disruptive weather events that led to vegetable prices in China rising more than between June and September Hot and dry conditions also left South Korean cabbages nearly more expensive than the year prior according to local media reports Napa cabbage is commonly pickled into kimchi a staple local dish and the governing body has utilized national stocks to bolster supplies Australian lettuce s hike Eastern Australia faced record-breaking extreme flooding in early which was soon estimated to be Australia s costliest ever flood and its fifth the greater part costly catastrophe A resulting lettuce shortage led shoppers to complain about prices of around A for a head of iceberg lettuce The lettuce previously cost roughly A a piece according to the Guardian representing a more than price increase Fast food chain KFC even began substituting in cabbage in its burgers Is context inflation permanent Prices tend to respond as soon as one or two months after an instance of extreme heat or drought says Max Kotz the investigation s lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center He and the other authors also looked at how atypical weather events were for each region based on the distribution of measures like temperature over time They located that heat drought and floods were occurring at an increased intensity and frequency El Ni o a weather pattern that occurred from to likely also influenced the extreme weather observed the authors say These kinds of food price shocks typically turn out to be short-term in nature because high prices incentivize more production which brings prices back down says Andrew Stevenson a senior surroundings analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence Products like coffee and cattle are the exception because they require certain conditions such as a tropical environment or large swathes of land for grazing that limit where they can be grown and bred Coffee and cattle futures contracts that represent near-term pricing in those markets have marched up in price since in contrast with futures for a crop like corn that s more easily grown New US tariffs could further squeeze farmers abroad says Stevenson It puts producers in an uncomfortable position where the price of beef is too expensive to sell at home but not expensive enough to sell with a tariff he adds Extreme weather is only expected to continue and the assessment recommends that countries consider policies that will help consumers manage rising food prices Ultimately though slashing greenhouse gas emissions and containing global warming will be key to reducing food price inflation risks the authors say Atmosphere forecasts can also provide early warnings and farms can implement adaptations like irrigation though both approaches have serious limitations More stories like this are available on bloomberg com Bloomberg L P