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Saturday, February 19, 2011

HOW DOES THE PRICE OF PRODUCE SHOOT UP 100% IN 2 DAYS? It's Getting Ugly Out There!

***Cross-posted at News Real Blog, Liberty Pundits*** 

                                           Glenn Beck "buggin'?"  If by "buggin'" you mean "right...?"

He joked about it this week on his radio show:
Glenn has been warning about rising food prices, and he plans to prepare by eating as many McGriddles as possible.

“Corn, sugar, wheat, beef, pork, and coffee, the prices are already soaring. Cotton prices are near their highest level in more than a decade. Clothing prices are going to go up they say 10 to 30% in the next few weeks,” he said.

Vegetable prices are rising as well, and Glenn said that due to the costs he may not have to embark on his new vegan/stick/soy/really disgusting food diet.
And at his online daily magazine The Blaze, editor Meredith Jessup had this to say this week:

The World Bank delivered a stark warning of the impact of the rising cost of food Tuesday, saying an estimated 44 million people had been pushed into poverty since last summer by soaring commodity prices.

The group’s president, Robert Zoellick, says global food prices have hit “dangerous levels” that could contribute to political instability, push millions of people into poverty and raise the cost of groceries.
Nothing but scare tactics from the left’s favorite “buggin’” punching bag? You might be able to convince yourself of that so you can sleep at night.

Just don’t open your eyes at the grocery store, read any signs, or talk to any produce stock clerks.

I had to run to my local Walmart last night, a common occurrence when you’re a mother of teenage-ish boys. It seems no matter how carefully you list everything when you do your “big shopping,” you either always forget something or some “gotta have it tonight!” moment appears out of nowhere, usually after 7 pm.

So there I was, strolling through produce, about to grab some nectarines that I thought were .68 cents per pound when my casual comment on how cheap they were elicited the thoughtful caution from the clerk that they were actually .68 cents each.

“Each???” Naturally, I was incredulous. I love nectarines, and couldn’t believe my luck at finding them so early in the year.

“That’s nothing,” she said, and waved me over to the Roma tomatoes, the smaller, oval-shaped red beauties that I love for salads and my favorite Italian dishes and a staple for all who love spaghetti. “See these Romas?”

I nodded.


                                                                  Something rotten in Roma!


“See how they’re $1.64 per pound? Well, two weeks ago I left work on a Friday and they were .84 cents per pound. When I came to work Monday morning, they were $1.64.”

I literally felt my eyes bug out of my head. I’d always wondered if that ever happened outside of cartoons, Glenn Beck, or Marty Feldman.

It does.

Once my baby greens were safely back in their sockets and I could breathe again, I asked her if anyone had said anything about the 100% increase in price over a two day period.

“Nope. I’ve commented on it to several people, but until now, none of them seemed to have grasped the seriousness of it.”

“It’s going to get much, much worse,” I said, then felt my gut tighten. Why did I say that?

“You feel it too?” she practically whispered.

We chatted a moment about Egypt and the fun of Islammunist dominoes we got to watch every day, how she had cut back on coffee due to the price increases in the past few months, skyrocketing gas prices, which always affect commodities, and the ominous Iranian cloud headed for the Suez Canal and Syria. For those few minutes of fresh fruit bonding, we held a secret that everyone around us seemed determined to ignore—that this 100% increase in a two day period was more than just your usual economic glitch.

And then it was time to check out and get home.

I spent most of today pondering on this, until right around 4 pm when my youngest asked if we had any ginger ale for his upset stomach.

Yep, you guessed it. At least it wasn’t 7pm.

So as I headed back toward the soda aisle I had to pass the produce section. I just happened to glance up and there it was, in a newly-arranged center aisle display: Roma Tomatoes…$2.34 per pound. It was an increase of .70 cents per pound. That’s about a 43% increase in price.

And this time, it hadn’t been two days. It hadn’t even been a full 24 hours yet.

Old Bug Eyes re-appeared, and the same clerk from the night before recognized my awesome fringe jacket and my shocked-by-tomatoes-face immediately. She gave me “that look” and a weak smile.

“Well, you said just last night that it was going to get much worse. I just didn’t think it would happen in less than a day.”

I guess we are no longer down to days, but to hours, spaghetti sauce is no longer the cheapest meal you can make, and Armageddon is going to look very, very ugly.


                                                                The look of things to come

If Glenn Beck is crazy for daring to say “out loud” what is clearly happening, then buggin’ is the new normal. We’re all crazy now.

Keep the faith, bros, in all things courage, and no substitute for VICTORY.

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