Fuel prices have settled down a little bit since their record highs in the middle of last summer, but farmers are just now tallying up the damage. The first half of a Stockton Record story about the impact of the fuel price surge focused on producers of processing tomatoes. Tomato farmers typically negotiate a fixed price for their crop in late winter to help them secure loans and make planting plans, according to the Record's story. Tomato farmers won a record cannery price of $70 a ton in January, up $7 a ton from the year before.

"When the contract price was negotiated, everybody felt pretty good about it," the...

Director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, indicated that declining agricultural research is contributing to a hike in global food prices, according to an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

There has been a decline in investments in agricultural research and development at the federal and state levels and worldwide, with more resources diverted to improving efficiency, the story paraphrased Sumner.

"It's a long-running phenomenon I think we ought to pay a lot more attention to," he was quoted.

The Chronicle story, by George Raine, also attributed the spike in food prices to:

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A UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor warned that food prices could double as a result of the surge in U.S. fuel prices. The advisor, Milton McGiffen, who works with vegetable crops in Riverside County, was quoted today in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

“If you double the price of oil, I would assume that food would at least double, and it might be more because the cost of oil gets magnified in the food chain," he is quoted in the story.

The article said the fuel-to-food price link stems from:

• Farmers paying more to fill their tractors with diesel for planting and harvesting
• Higher cost...