"Got milk?" Before you answer, take a look at your wallet. The white stuff of everyone's childhood is about to get more expensive as experts say climate change is causing the price of the American staple to rise.
Researchers found that temperatures spiking correlates with dairy cows producing less milk, PBS NewsHour reported, and this may drive the costs to increase.
Inflation has already been a significant factor at the grocery store, with prices rising despite people returning to work. The inflation rate also remains the highest it has been in nearly two decades.
As emissions continue to increase the likelihood of heatwaves and warm seasons continuing to lengthen, cows' milk production may see a steep fall-off across the country. Regulation of dairy costs from the federal government will also play a role in milk prices.
Dairyherd.com reported that "historically, milk prices peak in September or October before trending lower after the surge in buying for the holidays subsides. This year, price strength has been delayed and could possibly last longer in duration depending on the level of demand experienced as the last quarter of the year progresses."
Some retailers have been willing to absorb price hikes -- so far -- but that will only hold out so long.
Some experts think that as milk production drops, prices will rise. A professor of agricultural economics emeritus at Cornell University, Andrew Novakovic, told USA Today that the rise in prices is "certainly possible."
"If production were to decrease relative to what people otherwise would have expected, there are plenty of mechanisms by which that tightening in production will result in a higher price, just like anything else would," Novakovic said.
The rising prices could also be affected by agriculture as it plays its own role in global greenhouse gas emissions.
Novakovic went on to say that farmers will need to take on the initial costs of keeping their cows comfortable, whether by using a cooling system more frequently or intensively than they have before.
"There are days that are more extreme, which is entirely consistent with climate change scenarios, and those more extreme days could very well be putting some folks into a place their current existing management systems aren't really designed to deal with," he said.
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