Fourth Generation Farmer: High Food Prices Now, Shortages Coming

China - Farmer John Boyd Jr., poses for a portrait during a break from bailing hay at his
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Penny Starr

John Boyd Jr., a fourth generation farmer, said in an interview that the high prices consumers are seeing at the grocery stores will be replaced by empty shelves.

“People are going to see the rising cost of food in their local grocery stores in the coming month,” Boyd Jr. said on News Nation’s On Balance with Leland Vittert show Monday.

“Farmers are feeling the pinch from high cost of diesel fuel and fertilizer, truckers are feeling the pinch and you have a certain region in the world that’s not planting crops at this time in Ukraine, so there’s going to be a shortage of wheat and commodities that they’ve been producing there, as well,” said Boyd Jr., who is president of the National Black Farmers Association and a was a member of President Bill Clinton’s Tobacco Commission.

TOPSHOT - A photograph shows anti-tank obstacles on a wheat field at a farm in southern Ukraines Mykolaiv region, on June 11, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP) (Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)

A photograph shows anti-tank obstacles on a wheat field at a farm in southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, on June 11, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)

News Nation reported on the interview:

While the Federal Reserves’ plan to raise interest rates — a blunt tool that risks a recession if used too aggressively — is supposed to remedy a fast-rising inflation, it’s also souring sentiment for shoppers across the country.

And it goes far beyond the gas pump: Eggs are up 32 percent, poultry is up 16.6 percent, milk is up 15.9 percent and fats and oils are up 16.9 percent, Axios reports. Overall, the cost of food is up about 12 percent — the largest increase since 1979.

Boyd went on to explain food staples such as corn, corn syrup and soybeans are all the types of products local farmers produce daily, which, in turn, help place the major products on shelves that shoppers are accustomed to seeing. Inflation, however, makes these deliverables more difficult.

“For so long, we’ve enjoyed lots of food in this country, so we’ve never ever faced a food shortage and I think that’s coming in the coming months,” Boyd said in the interview.

Boyd said people often think of farmers last, if at all, but they rely on them daily.

“You may not need a doctor or a lawyer today, but every day in this country, you need a farmer,” Boyd said.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.