Not just corn on the cob

Last week’s Midwestern floods devastated many lives, ruining people’s homes and livelihoods. They also ruined food crops, sending corn, wheat and soybean prices way up.

So, we can add food inflation to the long list of what ails our economy: High gas prices, low home values, a credit crunch and job insecurity. More than 2 million acres of cropland may have been engulfed by floods in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and other key growing states.

The impact on the corn crop alone will be felt across the board and through to the holiday season. Expect to pay more for your Thanksgiving turkey or that Christmas ham in the upcoming holiday season.

Here’s why a devastated corn crop is not just about corn on the cob:

1) Many basic food items are dependent on corn. Meat and dairy farms depend on corn for animal feed, so look to pay more for milk and ground chuck.

2) A lot of processed foods depend on corn, too. All those soft drinks and packaged foods get sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which will cost you.

3) A lot of other products that have nothing to do with food use corn. Toothpaste and mouthwash, ethanol for gas tank and even some everyday plastics are produced from corn.

Americans in the affected states are just starting to pick up the pieces after the floods. But, Americans in the rest of the country will feel the effects later in the year as the price of a whole slew of products at the super market that we depend on in our daily lives start to go up.