Inflation Slows & Cookie Dough Recall

Inflation Slows & Cookie Dough Recall plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Finally, some good news from the front of the grocery store. USDA economist, Ricky Volpe takes a look at the forecast for food price inflation for next year.

VOLPE: Right now our price for food and food at home prices is an increase of 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 percent which is a reflection mostly of the idea that we expect retailers to start to really pick up the pace of pass-through. They’ve ben seeing higher prices for commodities for a long time now. And we’ve seen the Producer Price Index for intermediate and finished foods rise considerably faster than the CPI. We have seen margins shrink at the retail level. They’re not going to absorb these losses permanently so we do expect pass-through to increase and it may start to pick up towards the end of this year.

Chocolate chip cookie dough fans, listen up. Conagra Foods has recalled packages of their Kroger's Break 'N Bake chocolate chip cookie dough. The recall is over the fact that some of the packages may contain peanuts which could pose a threat for people with a peanut allergy. If you have any packages of the dough at home you can contact Conagra for details and return the product to the store for a refund.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

The response to a Missouri rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask to taunt a bull has been blown way out of proportion. Was the rodeo clown’s intent racist? No. Was it a reflection of a long standing rodeo tradition of using politicians as fodder for laughs? Yes. Obama is the current U.S. President whose administration has come under fire for numerous things throughout his presidency - Obamacare, EPA preferential treatment for liberal groups, IRS targeting conservatives, the NSA secretly collecting “metadata” on ordinary citizens; and that’s just to name a few. Oh, and he happens to be black, which is what all the uproar is about concerning the rodeo skit. No one has had a problem over the years when the politicians portrayed by rodeo clowns were Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush one and Bush two, and Hillary Clinton! Skits such as the one performed in Missouri earlier this month have been performed time and time again over the years. The threats and accusations hurled at the rodeo clown performing in the Obama mask are akin to mob mentality. The skit was about political opinion and laughs and as far as I know that’s still legal in this country.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.