Ag Economist: Grocery Bills Will Climb, But Don't Expect 'Runaway Inflation'

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The drought will cause food prices to go up, but a University of Missouri agricultural economist says the price rise shouldn't be catastrophic.

Pat Westhoff says there's still a lot to be determined.

"Again, we are going to see increases in food prices, let's be clear about that. Just how big they're going to be is still to be determined. But, no, we don't expect to see runaway inflation in the near term unless we see things get a lot worse than they are now."

Westhoff says prices will rise quickly for fresh foods like milk, cheese and vegetables. He says prices on products such as beef, pork and poultry rise more slowly.

Westhoff says the U.S. Department of Agriculture is still calling for large crops of corn and soybeans, despite the record drought. He says the next 6-8 weeks will determine how high grocery prices will go.

"What happens the rest of the summer still matters tremendously in how things come out. But if we were to salvage some kind of a crop that the USDA estimated last week, things aren't nearly as dire as people are portraying them."

Westhoff says a record number of farmers planted a record amount of corn and soybeans during the early spring warmth all across the country, and not all of those crops are drought stricken.