Climate change and US ‘geopolitical uncertainty’ are making staple groceries more expensive for Americans. Coffee beans cost more now than any time in the last 50 years, leaving producers to pass along the cost of doing business to their customers. Back at the tail end of January, coffee prices rose to more than $3.60 per pound for arabica coffee beans. The price skyrocketed because Brazil — easily the world's largest coffee bean producer — was running out of supply.
Last year, Brazil suffered a severe drought, and even though this year the nation has fared better, the upcoming bean crop is expected to be 4.4 percent smaller, according to Conab, a Brazilian food supply agency. Climate change, driven by human burning of fossil fuels, increases the global temperature. Higher temperatures increase the rate at which evaporation occurs, meaning there is less ground water and drier vegetation. This makes crops less viable and also creates ideal conditions for wildfires.
The idea is that coffee producers can take their profits gained from higher prices and put them toward climate change mitigation measures, like growing more trees to shade the coffee beans. Back in January, Donald Trump threatened to slap Colombian goods with a 25 percent tariff in an attempt to strongarm the nation into letting him dump refugees and deportees inside its borders.
While that wouldn't necessarily increase prices for coffee producers — at least not initially — it would certainly have kicked up the cost for consumers, who in turn might be forced to buy less overall to account for the price increase. Colombian president Gustavo Petro caved to Trump's demands, stopping the tariffs from being placed on his country’s products. The Trump administration warned Colombia that the tariffs would be held "in reserve" and could be brought back if the South American nation stepped out of line.
Even if Trump doesn't follow through with his tariff threats — he backed down from similar ultimatums he gave US allies Canada and Mexico, at least for now — the threats themselves are enough to send global markets into a panic. For many American households, coffee is a daily use item and a regular buy at the grocery store. Thanks to human driven climate change and the Trump administration's economic intimidation tactics, regular purchase items like coffee and eggs are becoming less and less affordable.
Like coffee, eggs also hit a record high in January, when a dozen cost on average $4.95. Since then, the average cost has ballooned to $8, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Since the beginning of 2024, the cost of eggs rose by 65 percent, according to consumer price index data. Unfortunately there is no indication that the cost of either staple is going to go down anytime soon.
Trump said on Friday that his Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, will do "something" about the egg prices. “She’s going to do something with the eggs,” Trump said. He insisted that "we inherited all the problems.”. The current cost of staples like eggs and coffee has ensured that Trump couldn't keep one of his campaign promises — to bring down prices on day one of his presidency.
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