(SPM Wire) If it seems like your grocery store bills are getting bigger, you’re not imagining it: food prices are on the rise, and poised to go higher.
Scarce rainfall plus last summer’s record-breaking heat wave resulted in scorched crops in many of the nation’s grain-producing regions. The reduced fall harvest has created higher prices at the supermarket now, for products ranging from boxes of cereal to bottles of soda, and from bacon to beef.
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