The blistering heat isn't going anywhere. It's not just uncomfortable, it's also affecting the food we eat.

Tuesday afternoon we spent the day out at Braune Farms.

“It's just really hot,” Julie Braune said.

She said they've been in a battle with this record-breaking heat and lack of rain to save their crops.

The extreme heat and humidity that we've been facing in the Central and South Texas area has not only impacted crops it's also impacted the dirt that they're planted in and that means at this point it can be kind of tough to keep them from being sunburned.

“We're seeing smaller than usual vegetables. If we don't have good foliage or even if we do have a good foliage cover, they can still sunburn in the cause of rotten spots or bad spots on our peppers,” Braune said.

She adds they have a good variety of crops but the heat dome is impacting some of your favorite foods.

“Squashes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, which we're standing in front of right now, okra,” Braune said.

Economist Ray Perryman said the historic heat is projected to cost Texas nearly $10,000,000,000. He said some of that loss coming from agricultural losses.

“It impacts crops, crop yields, those kinds of things, it could have a drop of about 6% in agricultural output,” Perryman said.

That could translate to your pocketbook.

“Your grocery bill would only go up maybe 15%. It will be certainly be noticeable," Perryman said.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food prices rose nearly seven percent from May of 2022 to May of 2023.

Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller weighs in on the impact.

“Corn is pretty much done for our cotton crop is trying to bloom but we really didn't get a very good stand. Your meat prices are going to go up but things like wheat and corn we have a bumper crop,” Miller said.

The Braunes have their fingers crossed for that to translate to them.

When we have the extreme heat and extreme humidity, that hinders the crops from growing like they need to grow, and then that also will lower our production. We have had to go up a little bit on our prices, just for the fact of our watering cost,” Braune said.

Source - https://cbsaustin.com