15 Reasons Why Your Food Bill Is Going To Start SOARINGMichael Snyder Just the other day, a CBS News article boldly declared that food prices soar as incomes stand still, but the truth is that this is only just the beginning. If the drought that has been devastating farmers and ranchers out west continues, we are going to see prices for meat, fruits and vegetables soar into the stratosphere. Already, the federal government has declaredportions of 11 states to be disaster areas, and California farmers are going to leave half a million acres sitting idle this year because of the extremely dry conditions. Sadly, experts are telling us that things are probably going to get worse before they get better (if they ever do). As you will read about below, one expert recently told National Geographic that throughout history it has been quite common for that region of North America to experience severe droughts that last for decades. In fact, one drought actually lasted for about 200 years. So there is the possibility that the drought that has begun in the state of California may not end during your entire lifetime. This drought has gotten so bad that it is starting to get national attention. Barack Obama visited the Fresno region on Friday, and he declared that this is going to be a very challenging situation this year, and frankly, the trend lines are such where its going to be a challenging situation for some time to come. If you will recall, there have been warnings that Dust Bowl conditions were going to return to the western half of the country for quite some time. Now the mainstream media is finally starting to catch up. And of course these extremely dry conditions are going to severely affect food prices. The following are 15 reasons why your food bill is going to start soaring #1 2013 was the driest year on record for the state of California, and 2014 has been exceptionally dry so far as well. #2 According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 91.6 percent of the entire state of California is experiencing severe to exceptional drought even as you read this article. #3 According to CNBC, it is being projected that California farmers are going to let half a million acres of farmland sit idle this year because of the crippling drought. #4 Celeste Cantu, the general manager for the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, says that this drought could have acataclysmic impact on food prices #5 Mike Wade, the executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition, recently explained which crops he believes will be hit the hardest #6 As I discussed in a previous article, the rest of the nation is extremely dependent on the fruits and vegetables grown in California. Just consider the following statistics regarding what percentage of our produce is grown in the state 99 percent of the artichokes #7 Of course it isnt just agriculture which will be affected by this drought. Just consider this chilling statement by Tim Quinn, the executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies #8 The Sierra Nevada snowpack is only about 15 percent of what it normally is. As the New York Times recently explained, this is going to be absolutely devastating for Californians when the warmer months arrive #9 The underground aquifers that so many California farmers depend upon are being drained at a staggering rate #10 According to an expert interviewed by National Geographic, the current drought in the state of California could potentially last for 200 years or more as some mega-droughts in the region have done in the past #11 Much of the western U.S. has been exceedingly dry for an extended period of time, and this is hurtinghuge numbers of farmers and ranchers all the way from Texas to the west coast #12 The size of the U.S. cattle herd has been shrinking for seven years in a row, and it is now the smallest that it has been since 1951. But our population has more than doubled since then. #13 Extremely unusual weather patterns are playing havoc with crops all over the planet right now. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Lizzie Bennett #14 As food prices rise, our incomes are staying about the same. The following is from a CBS News article entitled Food prices soar as incomes stand still #15 As I have written about previously, median household income has fallen for five years in a row. So average Americans are going to have to make their food budgets stretch more than they ever have before as this drought drags on. If the drought does continue to get worse, small agricultural towns all over California are going to die off. For instance, consider what is already happeningto the little town of Mendota Large numbers of agricultural workers continue to hang on, hoping that somehow there will be enough work for them. But as Evelyn Nieves recently observed, panic is starting to set in I did not write this article so that you would panic. Yes, incredibly hard times are coming. If you will recall, the 1930s were also a time when the United States experienced extraordinarily dry weather conditions and a tremendous amount of financial turmoil. We could very well be entering a similar time period. Worrying about this drought is not going to change anything. Instead of worrying, we should all be doing what we can to store some things up while food is still relatively cheap. Our grandparents and our great-grandparents that lived during the days of the Great Depression knew the wisdom of having a well-stocked food pantry, and it would be wise to follow their examples. Please share this article with as many people as you can. The United States has never faced anything like this during most of our lifetimes. We need to shake people out of their normalcy bias and get them to understand that big changes are coming. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 