Food Prices

Mention this city's name in China and people think beef noodles. Once served only to royalty, beef noodles, or niurou mian, were brought out of the palace and into ordinary folks' homes about a century ago by Ma Baozi, a member of the Muslim ethnic minority group known as the Hui. Today, more than 1,000 beef noodle shops cater to this western industrial city of 3 million on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, far from the prosperous eastern metropolises of Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Gemco supermarkets still have the lowest overall food prices in comparison to seven other major grocery chains in the San Diego area, the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG) reported Monday. Gemco has ranked No. 1 in the overall price ratings in CalPIRG's study in each of the last five years. Gemco prices are nearly 28% lower than those at the Mayfair stores, which have the highest prices of the stores surveyed in CalPIRG's study.

The top U.S. commodity regulator said Tuesday that it would require investors and index funds to disclose more information about their holdings in agricultural markets after farmers and lawmakers alleged that speculators had inflated food prices. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in an e-mailed statement, also said it would grant fewer exemptions to speculative-position limits related to agricultural index trading and would provide more detail on trader holdings starting next month.

Tumbling food, energy and raw material costs left wholesale prices unchanged in May, the government said Friday, as the economic slowdown engineered by the Federal Reserve Board helped cool inflation. Vegetable prices plunged, contributing to the largest drop in food prices in a year. Prices of raw materials and other goods used in the early and intermediates stages of production--such as lumber and paperboard--either fell or remained well in check after months of worrisome increases.

The pace of inflation slowed a bit last month, despite sharp rises in the cost of gasoline and medical care, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, but economists warned that May's modest price increases will seem to be "a fond memory" when the impact of the Farm Belt drought reaches grocery stores. The consumer price index increased at a seasonally adjusted 0.3% rate last month, down from 0.4% in April and 0.5% in March. It was the smallest monthly advance since a 0.2% rate in February.

For the third time in three years, the cost of food in Poland has suddenly gone up sharply, but Poles appear to be swallowing the government's latest dose of harsh economic medicine in a mood of sour resignation. On Monday, the price of bread was raised 30%, sugar went up by nearly half and flour and rice now cost 41% more than they did last week.

The government of the Soviet republic of Lithuania resigned Tuesday after several thousand angry workers attempted to storm the Parliament to protest increased food prices and lawmakers inside the building criticized the government's moderate approach in negotiations for the republic's independence from Moscow.

In lunchrooms throughout the Visalia School District, kids are about to notice what administrators are doing to save money in the face of rising food prices. The chicken taquitos the students like so much will be dropped. So will the popular pizza pockets. The items (49 cents for a taquito; 58 cents for a pizza) are too pricey to keep on the menu -- especially when it is costing the district $110,000 more this year to serve milk than it did last year. "Prices started to escalate last year.

The Agriculture Department forecast Tuesday that this summer's relentless drought will slash the nation's grain production this year by a staggering 24% from 1987 levels and could wreak even more damage if the hot, dry weather persists.