THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
PAGE 9A
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JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
The drought in Kansas has affected both agriculture and restaurants. The majority of the state is in a drought
LAUREN METZLER
@MetzlerLauren
The drought that has struck Kansas over the past few summers has affected not only agriculture, but the restaurant industry as well.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 87.92 percent of Kansas is in moderate drought and parts of Western Kansas are in severe and extreme drought.
"Food costs are up for every restaurant in the country," said Josh Hilliard, head baker for WheatFields Bakery Café in downtown Lawrence.
But WheatFields has not seen much of a change in flour prices — a main ingredient in many of its products. Wheatfields hasn't raised its menu prices in a couple of years.
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This three-year drought in Kansas has not been as kind to farmers. Haley Dix, a junior from Stockton, comes from a family that owns a farm and harvests crops like wheat, soybeans, corn and milo. They also run an Angus cattle ranch.
It takes money and resources to yield a crop. Resources like fertilizer, seed, equipment and fuel are necessary, Dix said. But the drought has reduced the amount of viable crops and caused the output to be low. This makes it increasingly difficult for farmers to earn a living.
"It's taken a really big toll, at least in my community, because a lot of people are maxed out on loans from the bank," Dix said. "Until it rains, until there is a good crop, everyone is in big financial distress."
Although the farming industry has endured hardships, this has not meant disaster for the
Dix ranch.
"You just have to wait it out in a way; that's what my family has done." Dix said. "You just do what you know, do things that you've done that have worked in the past and just hope that it rains."
Traditional business tactics like raising prices are not an option for the Dix family because they are not able to set their own prices. Commodity prices are set by the market, Dix said.
"The market is kind of backwards right now. In April, [the price of wheat] was around $8 and now it's at $5, so it's dropped like 10 cents a day," Dix said. "You would think it would go the other way because we have less supply and the same demand."
This is good news for businesses like WheatFields Bakery.
"Food costs are up for every restaurant in the country."
JOSH HILLIARD
Head baker for WheatFields
Just last weekend, Hilliard spent the holiday inputting the raw ingredients used at WheatFields into a new inventory system to keep track of product prices. This helps the management staff identify if they are overspending and if they can reduce prices by buying the same quality ingredients elsewhere.
Even though wheat prices have lowered for the Dix family, this does not mean that all wheat prices have followed that trend. WheatFields had to make the switch from organic flour to traditional flour. This was necessary when the price
of organic flour rose to more than double that of regular flour. Hilliard said.
"Organic flour is both extremely expensive right now and very hard to come by," Hilliard said.
WheatFields purchases food products from Dawn Distribution, United Natural Foods and U.S. Foods. These companies distribute produce from farms like Heartland Mill, a farmer-owned co-op in Western Kansas. Heartland Mill began importing organic wheat from Argentina this last summer. WheatFields has since stopped purchasing from Heartland Mill.
"We just thought that it doesn't make sense to be buying wheat grown in Argentina when we have high quality conventional wheat here in Kansas." Hilliard said.
At the start, WheatFields only used organic flour. Some time between 1994 and 2008, when Hilliard joined the WheatFields team, the organic craze hit the U.S., and organic wheat became much more expensive, Hilliard said. When prices started to go up, adaptation was necessary.
"Eventually it got to the point where we said if we keep raising prices to pay for this flour then we're going to lose our customers," Hilliard said. "We tried to stay organic for as long as we could."
Although the flour might have changed at WheatFields, not much else has. Hilliard is sure that they are set to weather the drought.
"We're 20 years old," Hilliard said. "We've been doing this for a while. We have a dedicated customer base that we love. We're not going anywhere."
Edited by Emily Brown
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A tip from an "average citizen" led to the end of a frantic manhunt and the filing of more than a dozen felony charges for a 34-year-old convicted felon with a history of violence.
Prosecutions charged Brandon B. Howell on Wednesday, one day after police say he fatally shot three people and critically wounded two others in quiet south Kansas City neighborhood. Eleven hours after the shooting, police found Howell walking along Interstate 29 near midnight with a loaded .12-gauge shotgun down his pants.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Howell faces 12 felony charges in Jackson County, including three counts of first-degree murder, for the shooting deaths of Alice Hurst, 88; her son, Darrel Hurst, 63; and Susan Chourcoun, 69. He also is accused of severely beating George and Anna Taylor, who remained in critical condition at a local hospital Wednesday, Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said.
He was also charged in Platte County with burglary, three counts of assault and other offenses related to three
Man charged in three shooting deaths in KC
Witnesses told police they heard several shots and saw a beige Toyota Highlander stop in front of Choucroun's home and a man get out carrying a long gun, the probable cause statement said. Prosecutors said the man shot the woman, got back into the Toyota and drove away.
The shootings appeared to be random, Peters Baker said. Kansas City police responded to a 911 call from Anna Taylor at 12:50 p.m. Tuesday. Officers found Choucroum's body in the driveway of one of the homes in this tidy, middle-class cul-de-sac lined with duplexes. The Taylers were next door in their basement suffering from critical injuries, and a few houses away, the Hursts' bodies lay in the front yard.
Schools near the motel were locked down and residents were urged to stay inside and lock their doors Tuesday evening as the search for the suspect continued.
Two hours later, police received a report that three people had been assaulted at a Motel 6 about 30 miles from the shooting scene. While canvassing the commercial area, officers found the stolen SUV in a restaurant parking lot near the motel.
"This is not a crime spree," Baker said at a news conference. "This was an individual who committed heinous acts and he is going to pay for his acts."
Kansas City was gripped by the news, as it appeared to be a random shooting spree.
Howell is being held without bond in the Jackson County jail. Kansas court records show he was paroled in 2011 after a conviction for a home invasion in Johnson County, Kansas, in which one victim was cut on the hand and a cat was killed.
Peters Baker said the shotgun Howell had at the time of his arrest Tuesday was the same one he bought in January 2000, eight months before pleading guilty to several charges in the 1999 home invasion and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Howell also was acquitted in 2009 in the killings of two Kansas teenagers who were last seen in 1998. One victim's body was later found buried outside a Kansas City home being renovated by Howell's father; the other body has never been found.
assaults at a Motel 6 in north Kansas City about two hours after the shootings.
Democrat removes TV ad in governor's race
TOPEKA — Democratic challenger Paul Davis has pulled his first television ad of the Kansas governor's race after the state Republican Party questioned the background of an actor in the spot.
The ad featured Davis responding to criticism from Republican
judgment for using Montague.
judgment for using Montague. Davis said he pulled the ad immediately and apologized for what he called a mistake.
Montague did not immediately return a telephone message Wednesday evening seeking comment.
Associated Press
Gov. Sam Brownback's campaign and other groups. Topeka actor Jeff Montague was in it.
City of Topeka spokeswoman Suzie Gilbert confirmed that Montague was arrested in October 2007 for soliciting sodomy and entered into a diversion agreement but could provide no further details. Such agreements allow people to avoid prosecution.
Kansas GOP Executive Director Clay Barker questioned Davis'
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