MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The drought gripping more than half the country is a
major reason why consumers can expect to pay 3 percent to 4 percent more
for groceries next year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said
Wednesday.
Milk,
eggs, beef, poultry and pork prices will all be affected because the
drought has pushed up prices for feed, and that will eventually
translate into higher prices for steaks, hamburger, pork chops and
chicken. The good news for cost-conscious consumers is that prices for
fruits and vegetables, as well as processed foods, aren't affected as
much by the drought.
Exactly
how much more people might pay for a pound of hamburger, for example,
isn't known because those prices are affected by lots of factors,
including how much of the increase a given supermarket might pass along
to the consumer. But beef prices as a whole are expected to see the
biggest jump at 4 percent to 5 percent, according to the USDA.
Dairy
product prices are forecast to climb 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent;
poultry and egg prices are projected to rise 3 percent to 4 percent; and
pork prices are expected to rise 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent in 2013,
the agency said.
"In
2013 as a result of this drought we are looking at above-normal food
price inflation. ... Consumers are certainly going to feel it," USDA
economist Richard Volpe said.
Normal
grocery price inflation is about 2.8 percent a year, Volpe said, so
even a 3 percent increase is slightly higher than usual. The USDA kept
its projected food price increase for 2012 steady at 2.5 percent to 3.5
percent, saying average retail food prices were flat for the first half
of 2012 thanks to unusually low fruit and vegetable prices as well as
lower prices for milk and pork.
Hours after Wednesday's court hearing, Katherine
Jackson gave her first TV interview since the often wild and conflicting
reports surfaced, denying she had been kidnapped by her adult children
and saying she was devastated that Prince Michael, 15, Paris, 14 and
Blanket, 10, "have been taken away from me."
Katherine Jackson, 82, who was appointed
guardian of the kids in her son Michael's will, was reported missing and
unreachable by granddaughter Paris last week.
She was later said by family members to be resting under doctor's order at the Arizona home of one of her daughters.
"There are rumors going around about me that I have been kidnapped," she told ABC News in the interview.
"I
am here today to let everybody to know that I am good and fine ... My
children would never do anything to me like that," she added.
Katherine Jackson said the court ruling that gave temporary guardianship to her grandson Tito was "based on a bunch of lies."
"I am devastated that while I've been away, my grandchildren have been taken away from me, and I'm coming home," she added.
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After days of rumors swirling about Katherine
Jackson's whereabouts and well-being, the matriarch of the famous
family said she is returning to Los Angeles and is "good and fine."
Jackson made her first public statements to
ABC News since family members reported her missing over the weekend.
"There are rumors going around about me that I have been kidnapped,"
she said. "I am here today to let everybody know that I am good and
fine."
Jackson was also critical of Wednesday's court hearing, in which a
Los Angeles County judge stripped her of custody of Michael Jackson's
three children. Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff transferred
guardianship temporarily to a cousin after hearing allegations that
Katherine Jackson was being "held against her will" at an Arizona spa
and had sounded "strange" in the one phone call she made to relatives
since leaving L.A. on July 15.
"I've never heard my grandmother talk like that," the cousin, Tito
Joe "T.J." Jackson, told the judge about the early morning phone call
Wednesday. "She wasn't sharp. Some words seemed a little slurred."
An attorney for Katherine Jackson, Sandra Ribera, told the judge that
after staying with Michael Jackson's children this week in the
Calabasas home where they live with their grandmother, "I have reason to
believe she is being held or has been held against her will."
In naming T.J. Jackson temporary guardian, Beckloff said he was
responding to "the intentional acts of third parties" rather than any
misconduct by Katherine Jackson. He said that the law required T.J.
Jackson, 34 — son of Michael's brother Tito — to file paperwork seeking
permanent custody but that Katherine Jackson could be reinstated if she
returned.
But Katherine Jackson said that ruling was "based on a bunch of lies."
She described the trip as a short vacation, adding: "My children would never do anything to me like that."
She had been at the Miraval Resort & Spa in Arizona. The fight
between family factions became public over the weekend when relatives in
Calabasas filed a missing person's report. Sheriff's deputies later
closed the case after speaking with Katherine Jackson in Arizona, where
she was staying with her daughter, Rebbie Jackson.
Katherine Jackson was temporarily stripped of her guardianship over
Michael Jackson's three children Wednesday by a Los Angeles judge,
TMZ reports. Michael's nephew, T.J. Jackson, has been named the temporary guardian of
Paris, Prince and Michael Jr. Jackson.
"I
am devastated that while I've been away, my grandchildren have been
taken away from me, and I'm coming home," Katherine told ABC News late
Wednesday. "There are rumors going around about me that I have been
kidnapped," she said. "I am here today to let everybody to know that I
am good and fine. My children would never do anything to me like that."
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