The very heavy rain that California has experienced this year has provided many challenges for agricultural producers this year. Many orchards have been flooded, leading to suffocation of the tree roots due to lack of air in the soil, and farmers have not been able to do any field work for weeks due to the saturated ground. Crops that are harvested are often muddy, which reduces their value. The wet conditions has led to back-ups in greenhouses holding tomato and other vegetable seedlings and put them behind in their schedules of producing young plants for future crops. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that prices in grocery stores will be much higher, there will certainly be temporary shortages in some products due to the lack of harvesting and planting caused by sodden soil. I have certainly noticed that in my own grocery stores in the past few weeks. You can read more at https://news.yahoo.com/californias-vast-farms-soaked-theres-100001961.html.

Vineyards remain flooded in the Russian River Valley, Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, in Forestville, Calif. A massive storm system stretching from California into Nevada lifted rivers climbing out of their banks, flooded vineyards and forced people to evacuate after warnings that hillsides parched by wildfires could give way to mudslides. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)