High grocery prices have been a defining economic story in recent years, driven by a combination of factors including pandemic-related supply chain breakdowns and labor shortages. However, an increasingly critical driver of food price inflation has been the impact of natural disasters—such as droughts, floods, and hurricanes—on the nation’s agricultural output.
In April 2025, a devastating weather system massively flooded corn, rice, soybean, and wheat crops in eastern Arkansas, affecting 31% of agricultural acreage in the region and inflicting an estimated $99 million worth of damage. Similarly, the agricultural industry in North Carolina was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to grant $221.2 million in federal disaster assistance block grants to help the industry rebuild in the state.
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