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10 years ago · by · 0 comments

In-N-Out Burger and Chipotle Taco prices rising as California drought persists

Scurich Insurance Services, CA, Burger and FriesThe jingle “hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us” may need to include hold the hamburgers too, as drought-related costs have spiked the prices of hamburgers at favorite fast-food restaurants like In-N-Out Burger.

The San Bernadino Sun reports that, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this year beef prices are going to rise 5.5 to 6.5 percent, and poultry should increase 3 to 4 percent. Moreover, fruit, vegetables, and eggs will also increase in price by 3 to 4 percent. Significantly, California grows half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, but because of the record-setting drought, now in its third year, 500,000 acres of farmland remain uncultivated.

“We make every effort to keep our menu prices as low as possible,” claims In-N-Out’s executive vice president of development Carl Van Fleet. “Unfortunately, we have seen some pretty significant cost increases over the last year, and we had to take a small price increase in order to maintain our quality standards.”

All this boils down to higher prices for the consumer and, for those who are already feeling pinched by the lagging economic recovery, choosing what to order is being reconsidered. Giovanni Benitez, who recently had lunch at an In-N-Out Burger in Pasadena said, “I usually always get a combo, but now I might start buying just the hamburger.”

In-N-Out is not the only retail food chain raising prices. Chipotle Mexican Grill and Starbucks are also increasing the prices on their menus. Both stores are increasing the price of items in the 4 to 10 percent range.

Notably, consumers aren’t the only ones being affected by the fallout of increased water costs due to the drought. A U.C. Davis Center for Watershed Sciences study indicates that the drought could cost California’s agricultural and farm communities $1.7 billion and predicts that 14,500 full-time and seasonal workers will lose their jobs.

Consequently, farmers have started to invest in expensive water drilling equipment to locate underground water sources. CBS5 KPIX reports that independent well drilling companies are booming as a result of farmers looking for alternate sources of water.

Steve Arthur, who has been in the drilling-for-water business since 1974, said that he is booked through March of 2015 for drilling new wells. Steve says, “If farmers are not able to drill a well to keep their crops growing, then they are going to have to quit… The effects of that is going to be devastating. They are going to go into the market one day and a gallon of milk is going to cost ten dollars.”

Content provided by http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-California/2014/07/08/In-N-Out-Burgers-and-Chipotle-Tacos-Prices-Rising-As-Ca-Drought-Persists

 

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10 years ago · by · 0 comments

The Importance of Crop Insurance

Scurich Insurance Services, CA, DroughtAs with any business, agricultural producers face risks of all kinds. However, the two most important risks facing farmers are yield and price. Fortunately, producers can buy insurance that reduces their exposure to low yields or low prices. Unavoidable risks protected by crop insurance include:

* Heat
* Hail
* Drought
* Frost
* Freeze
* Pests
* Excess Moisture

Since the 1930s, crop insurance has been available to agricultural producers in the United States. However, it was in the 1990s that the United States government promoted crop insurance by offering new products and more insurance premium subsidies.

The Risk Management Agency (RMA), is part of the United States Department of Agriculture is the governing authority for the crop insurance program and is in charge of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC). Private insurance companies contract with RMA to service crop insurance sold through independent insurance agencies. As with other disaster insurance programs, such as the National Flood Insurance Program, the private sector sells crop insurance, as the private sector is more efficient and rapidly adjudicates claims.
Crop insurance is unique in that companies selling Federal Crop insurance have a mandate to sell to any farmer, even those who are at high risk, at the same premium set in advance by the Federal government. Even farmers in high-risk drought areas such as California get policies without special underwriting standards or higher premium rates.

Without crop insurance, agricultural producers would have difficulty in achieving financial stability, a more difficult time in getting and repaying loans. Crop insurance allows agricultural producers to help forward marketing.

Essential facts about United States Crop Insurance

* Farmers share in the cost of the program
* Agricultural producers are personally responsible for managing risk
* Under the program, the producer gets tailored risk management solutions
* Quick indemnity pay outs
* The crop insurance program is dynamic; it can quickly adjust and self-correct
* Payments to producers never exceed actual insured losses
* Insurance is allowable collateral for loans
* Growers have no payment limits that cut protection from losses
* Insured growers have the benefit of private sector efficiency
* The program has the flexibility to meet World Trade Organization support limits

The United States crop insurance program provides so much more than just protection from risk. It plays a vital role in keeping the agriculture industry functioning.

Contact our office to make sure you are completely covered.

Content provided by Transformer Marketing.

Sources: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/cmspubsclass/files/cgwalters/Understanding%20Crop%20Insurance.pdf, http://www2.ca.uky.edu/cmspubsclass/files/cgwalters/Understanding%20Crop%20Insurance.pdf, http://www.cropinsuranceinamerica.org/just-the-facts/is-crop-insurance-like-other-forms-of-insurance/, https://www.cropinsurers.com/images/pdf/focus-on-congress/Importance_of_Crop_Insurance_in_the_US.pdf

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10 years ago · by · 0 comments

California drought: Jobs, money dry up in farm towns

Scurich Insurance Services, CA, DroughtJose Pineda Rivas could use the cash. He’s got rent to pay, and his tooth hurts so badly he needs to see a dentist.

But these days, money for fieldworkers like Rivas in this drought-parched stretch of California is about as scarce as rain. And the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

The 61-year-old farmhand, who lives in a small home with his wife and a friend’s family, is hardly making enough to cover basic expenses, let alone pricey dental work. He thinks he can afford to get his aching tooth removed, he said. But actually replace it?

Not a chance.

As he tipped back his straw hat and morosely gazed at his flip phone on a recent day, Rivas explained that the crew boss at a nearby tomato farm was supposed to contact him about returning to work. But the call hadn’t come.

It’s the same desperate story all over the Central Valley.

Like many fieldworkers in Mendota, a rural community 35 miles west of Fresno dubbed the Cantaloupe Center of the World, Rivas finds his seasonal job of more than two decades at risk of disappearing because of the statewide drought.

Drought leaves field barren

Fields that normally come to life by April with the planting of tomatoes and melons have been left barren due to insufficient water. And that means less farm work to go around.

“Usually this time of year, we’ll all be going out and weeding and laying irrigation line,” Rivas said in Spanish. “None of that work has happened, and who knows when it will?”

A near-record dry winter has put California in the grip of its worst drought in decades. While many parts of the state have yet to feel any real impact – no cutbacks, no stiff rationing – that’s not the case in the farm towns of the San Joaquin Valley, where water is the touchstone of the economy and underpins the region’s standing as the most agriculturally productive in the nation.

About 20,000 farm jobs statewide stand to be lost this year out of 400,000, the bulk of them in the valley, said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

The estimate does not include thousands of additional jobs supporting agriculture: the truck drivers, packers and processors, as well as the merchants, real estate agents and teachers serving these farm communities.

“We know that this year unemployment is going to be significantly worse than it’s been in a long time,” said Michael, whose job loss projections are based on the amount of farmland likely to be fallowed.

The lost work, he added, will only compound hardship that bedevils many valley towns where unemployment rates consistently rank among the highest in the state.

In Mendota, where about half of the 11,000 residents are in families living below the federal poverty line, the jobless rate stood at 37 percent as of the last count in March, according to state data.

The mayor of Mendota suggested that unemployment could hit 50 percent by summer as the effects of the drought fully play out – a level higher than what was seen during the recent recession.

Read the entire article here.

Content provided by http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-drought-Jobs-money-dry-up-in-farm-5431129.php

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Scurich Insurance Services
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Aptos, Ca 95003-4700

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