BUTTERFAT CRISIS COULD CREAM CONSUMERS.Byline: Cliff Edwards Cliff Edwards (14 June, 1895 - 17 July, 1971), also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and musician who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Call it the Battle for the Bulge. Across the nation, there's a shortage of butterfat butterfat globules in the milk of all species. It can be separated to make butter. The nutritional value and the price of milk are judged on, among other things, the butterfat content of the milk. , the stuff that makes ice cream, chocolate, pastries and other rich foods taste oh so good. That's led to a pitched battle pitched battle n. 1. An intense battle fought in close contact by troops arranged in a predetermined formation. 2. A fiercely waged battle or struggle between opposing forces. for the stuff among food manufacturers - a battle that could mean record prices for butter, ice cream, cheese and cream cheese. Fat chance of finding a bargain this summer on the yummier things in life. ``I'd tell people to stock up, but I'm afraid that window of opportunity passed three weeks ago,'' said dairy consultant Mary Ledman of Libertyville, Ill. ``You're going to have to look long and hard to find anything with butterfat in it on special by the third quarter.'' Butterfat is the fatty part of milk that is processed out to make butter and also added to foods. Americans have been greasing the wheels for an increase in prices for months, as flavor began to triumph over health consciousness. Food manufacturers have quietly been adding more fat to their products this year, and people have been lapping it up. The problem is this: Nobody told the cows. They are still producing the same 3.6 pounds of butterfat for every 100 pounds of milk. ``As a result, we have the butter manufacturer competing against the cheese manufacturer, competing against the ice cream manufacturer, competing against the hundreds of products that use butterfat,'' Ledman said Tuesday. ``The cream, quite literally, is rising to the top for anybody who's willing to pay for it.'' For only the second time in history, the price of Grade AA butter has risen to $1.95 a pound, or 73 percent higher than a year ago, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. . Butter is about 80 percent butterfat. As a result, prices at the supermarket could rise to $3 a pound by late summer, economists said. Prices have been about $2 a pound for most of the year. BUTTER SHORTAGE Prices are rising partly because producers fell short of their usual winter peak: Grade AA butter N.Y. spot price July 1997: $1.13 Tuesday: $1.95 U.S. butter production, millions of pounds '96: 125 '97: 125 '98: 116 SOURCES: Bridge News, National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA USDA, n.pr See United States Department of Agriculture. CAPTION(S): 2 Charts CHART: (1--2) BUTTER SHORTAGE (see text) Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder (IPA: /ˈrɪdɚ/) was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Tribune |
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