[Restaurant Community]

In times where Americans are already stretching their grocery budgets, floods in the Midwest threaten to reduce world corn supplies and drive food prices higher.

The most recent floods have sent corn prices soaring past $7 a bushel for the first time, up from about $4 a year ago.

Iowa alone has been estimated to have lost between 1 million and 3 million acres of corn production which correlates to roughly 7% to 21% of the overall production by the nation’s top corn producing state.

Cold weather late in the planting season in much of the nations’ corn belt, coupled with heavy rains elsewhere in the Midwest during the last week, could leave the harvest down 10% to 12% this year.

The big concern just isn’t increased prices for corn on the cob but increased prices for beef, pork, chicken, eggs, and other dairy products as half of the nations corn crop is used for animal feed. Even soda requires corn syrup.

Although increased prices due to corn shortages may not be felt until 2009 or later this summer, has anyone thought of ways to change up their menus in order to avoid increased prices?

[Psychlone]

YES!!!! It's not good enough that they start using my corn to put in people's gas tanks, driving up the cost of ALL the food we purchase (as well as everything else that's corn related) - now they have to utilize HAARP to decimate the corn crops to drive the nail in as far as it can go.

The only hope we have now is the release of the NE Alaskan slope field and the newly profitable way of extracting oil from shale in the UT/CO/WY areas.

(just kidding on all that) - but it is true that since corn is being used as fuel, it's driven up the cost of everything related to that corn, and now that the corn crops are in peril, imagine what's next!

Psychlone